The ministry of petroleum and natural gas on Monday moved the Supreme Court against a foreign arbitration award allowing Vedanta and Videocon Industries to recover $499 million, instead of $198 million capped by the government, for development of the Ravva oil and gas fields off the Andhra Pradesh coast between 2000 and 2007. The case is scheduled to be heard again next week on June 15.
Challenging the Delhi High Court’s February judgment that allowed Vedanta’s predecessor Cairn India to implement the 2011 foreign arbitration award for higher recovery, the government argued that the HC had failed to look into “the colossal misconduct on the part of the tribunal” itself and had refused to interfere on the ground that the tribunal “has the right to make both right and wrong decisions as these are errors which fall within their jurisdiction”.
