Reliance Industries Limited counsel Harish Salve and Reliance Natural Resources Limited counsel Ram Jethmalani may have set the tone for the rest of the hearing. Responding to Jethmalani's repeated interruptions to Salve's arguments, he requested the newly- constituted Bench, with Justice Sudershan Reddy replacing Justice Raveendran, not to allow the 'arguments to turn into a street brawl'.

The altercation arose when Jethmalani interrupted Salve's submissions, resulting in accusations that the other side was deviating from the earlier stand adopted in the Bombay High Court. However, the Government seems to be in the middle of the accusations, with Jethmalani accusing the Government of making 'new collaborations' with RIL, and Salve accusing the Government of framing a national gas utilization policy at the behest of the Anil Ambani Group.

In a related development, media reports indicate that officials of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas briefed Senior Counsel P.P. Rao. When Additional Solicitor General Mohan Parasaran [pictured], who is representing the Ministry, threatened to quit, officials dropped the idea.

Paginate