Reliance pleads with Delhi HC to quash AAP’s FIR against it

NEW DELHI: Reliance Industries on Monday pleaded to the Delhi High Court to quash an FIR the city's Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government had lodged against it on alleged irregularities in the pricing of gas from the KG basin, a company executive said. The Anti-Corruption Branch of the Delhi government had named Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani, former ministers M Veerappa Moily and Murli Deora, and some other people in the FIR filed in 2014.

In the Delhi High Court, Reliance Industries counsel Harish Salve questioned the Delhi government’s authority to lodge the FIR in the first place. The court asked the AAP government to respond to this argument within two weeks, following which Reliance Industries will get a week to file its reply. The matter will be heard again on September 29.

During the hearing, Salve referred to the August 4 judgment of a division bench of the high court which held that powers of the ACB were limited to probing graft cases in departments under the administrative authority of the lieutenant governor and not extending to central government employees. Without the approval of Delhi’s lieutenant governor, the probe ordered by the government of Delhi into graft cases lack authority, the court had ruled.

Reliance’s plea on Monday builds on this judgment. Delhi government’s counsel, Rahul Mehra, told the court that they were in the process of approaching the Supreme Court challenging the August 4 verdict. He also said the Delhi government would file its response to the company’s plea.

The court then asked Mehra about the status of the FIR. To this, Mehra said, "nothing has happened for the last two years" as the matter pertaining to powers of ACB was pending in the high court.