Govt to seek clarification from SC on HPCL, BPCL disinvestment

NEW DELHI: The much talked about disinvestment process o the two oil PSUs took yet another turn on Friday.
The Government decided to approach the Supreme Court for clarification on certain aspects of the judgement halting privatisation of, HPCL and BPCL.
(Will the govt be able to break the disinvestment impasse in the next six months?)
The decision was taken at a meeting of Cabinet Committee on Disinvestment, chaired by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
The Government was considering six options including enacting a legislation to empower itself to disinvest the two oil PSUs and enacting a legislation to divest all such PSUs set up through Nationalisation/Acquisition of assets.
Other options before the Government are: to enact a general legislation to divest a PSU as long as the procedure was as per the rules to be framed under this legislation; that Government awaits any fresh case by a third party as a result of the SC judgement which would reopen the issue before a larger bench, and with this attempting a reversal of the verdict.
Government was also considering an option of reopening the issue by seeking a Presidential reference, the opinion of the court on the questions raised but left unanswered.
The last option, before the Government, was to seek a review.