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Two judges of the Supreme Court on Wednesday withdrew themselves from hearing cases involving Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries over possible conflict of interest.
Justice Markanadey Katju rescued himself from the hearing involving Bharat Petroleum, saying his wife owned shares in Reliance Industries.
Justice Raveendran exit the case, saying that his daughter was employed with Bangalore-based AZB Associates, which is the consultant agency for Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries on issues of global acquisition. He also mentioned that he was informed regarding this only last weekend.
He has been replaced by Justice B Sudershan Reddym on the three member bench along with Chief Justice KG Balakrishanan and Justice P Sathasivam.
"I know my conscience is clear. But justice should not only be done, but also seen to be done for upholding the respect and dignity of the institution," Justice Raveendran said.
"I wish somebody would have brought it to my notice earlier. That is the tradition of this court," he added.
Justice Raveendran quit the hearing when Harish Salve, counsel for Reliance Industries, was to conclude his argument. The hearing will start afresh today. Even though Raveendran was persuaded by Salve and Ram Jethmalani, he refused.
After he quit, both counsel wanted the case to be heard by the two remaining judges on the bench, but Chief Justice Balakrishnan said the case was meant to be heard by a three judge bench.
The court decided to hear the matter afresh, hoping Reliance Industries would complete its arguments by November 12.
During the course of hearing the arguments by Salve, Justice Raveendran asked several probing questions, while also passing several comments to elicit a response.
He said on October 29 that if the natural gas from the Krishna-Godavari basin is sold at a lower price, the whole country would stand to gain, while Reliance Industries alone would benefit if the consideration was higher.
Justice Raveendran has asked Reliance Industries the reason behind the non-supplying of gas at USD 2.34 per unit to Reliance Natural, despite the fact that Reliance Industries was gaining profit under this price also. He observed that USD 2.34 was also the price agreed for gas sale to the state-run NTPC.
