Reliance Industries today told the Supreme Court that it had no knowledge of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between its chairman Mukesh Ambani and the Ambani. But the Court asked how could there be a division between them in case there was no MoU. “If there was no MoU or any arrangement, then there was no division (referring to Reliance empire between Ambani brothers). Why was the need of demerger of a well known oil company (RIL)?” the bench presided by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan asked senior advocate Harish Salve, arguing for RIL.

The bench, including Justices R V Raveendran and P Sathasivam, also sought to know if the MoU, signed in 2005 for dividing Reliance’s assets including gas, was placed before RIL shareholders. Salve replied the MoU was not placed before shareholders, board or creditors and that it was more of a private family arrangement rather than a company arrangement. Claiming that MoU was not placed before the shareholders, Salve submitted although Board directors had knowledge of some parts of the MoU in their personal capacities but they had not approved the same. “MoU is not worth the paper on which it is written as far as RIL is concerned,” he contended as he termed as “worthless” the MoU signed between the two brothers, locked in a legal battle over fixation of gas pricing. RIL counsel, arguing for the third consecutive day, also attacked the government for “unreasonably” snatching its freedom to market gas. “We had assumed marketing freedom when we divided gas in 60:40 ratio between the two groups (in the GSMA signed in 2006).”

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