Delhi HC reserves order on maintainability of plea against ONGC appointments

The Delhi High Court yesterday reserved its order on the maintainability of the writ petition challenging the appointments of Shashi Shankar and Sambit Patra to the board of ONGC..The petition, filed by Advocate Prashant Bhushan on behalf of Energy Watchdog, primarily raised two objections:.That Shashi Shankar (appointed as CMD) has a tainted past and allegations of corruption have been levelled against him.That Sambit Patra (appointed as Non-Official Director) is the national spokesperson of BJP and therefore cannot be an independent director of a company whose promoter is the government..Appearing for the Centre, ASG Sanjay Jain submitted that the petition is not maintainable because it was filed as quo warranto. There is nothing in the petition that says that the ordinary course was not followed, he stated..With regard to Shashi Shankar, Jain stated that the Central Vigilance Commission had given him a clean chit and there was no hindrance for him to be appointed as the CMD..Jain then read out the bio data of Sambit Patra – who is a qualified surgeon – and enlisted his achievements. He stated that the employees at ONGC may benefit due to Patra’s work in the health sector. He also talked about Patra’s NGO ‘Swaraj’, which works for the betterment of the underprivileged..Senior Advocate Jayant Bhushan, appearing for the petitioner, submitted that he was not aware of the CVC clearance to Shankar and said that he will look into it. With regard to the appointment of Patra, Bhushan submitted that,.“Independent directors should be persons of eminence and should have a proven track record in either Industry, Business, Agriculture or Management. Under which of these does the biodata of Sambit Patra fall? If this is how appointments will be made, then anybody and everybody can be made a director in a public sector company. I would have agreed if Patra was given a profile that had something to do with medicine.” .Another contention raised by the petitioner was the absence of Sambit Patra’s name from the Data Bank of eligible persons willing to act as Independent Directors, as required to be prepared for the purpose of Section 150 of the Companies Act, 2013..It was stated by Bhushan that the whole purpose of an independent director was to have checks and balances..“If the government takes a decision regarding ONGC, will Patra be in a position to oppose it?”, he asked..Retorting the contentions raised by the petitioner, Jain stated,“There is nothing sacrosanct about the data bank. It has been completely outsourced. My independent source of knowledge about a person cannot be annihilated merely because there is a provision for a data bank. Managing an NGO also requires skills.”Jain also argued that a political party cannot be said to be related to the ruling government..The Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar reserved the order as to the maintainability of the petition after hearing arguments of both sides at length..The order is likely to be pronounced on Monday, November 6..Image Courtesy:.Sambit Patra.Shashi Shankar.Click here to download the Bar & Bench Android App