The Supreme Court ruled that the central government and ONGC conducted due deliberation before taking a decision on the $8.5 billion Cairn-Vedanta deal.
The court ruled this while rejecting a public interest litigation (PIL) challenging the deal on the ground that there was a loss to state-owned ONGC on account of the sale.
The PIL, filed by a Bengaluru resident Arun Kumar Agarwal, alleged that there was a clause in the agreement between Cairn group and ONGC that in case Cairn Group wanted to sell its shares in Cairn India, it would first offer the same to ONGC and this right was “not asserted” by the PSU and the centre.
The court said it cannot sit on judgement on an agreement between parties unless it is against the statute. But it opined that Cairn Energy should have first offered any shares in Cairn India to JV partner ONGC. Neither ONGC nor the government pressed this right, SC said, alleging that this caused a Rs 1 lakh crore loss to ONGC.
CAG figures are not the final word and are subject to interpretation and can be contested by the ministry, it said. These can then be accepted or rejected by parliament, SC said.
The court also said there was no extraneous considerations involved in the deal.
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