Reconsider sale of Pipavav firm’s shares to SEL: Gujarat high court

A bench of the Gujarat high court on Thursday asked the state government to reconsider its decision to sell Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation Limited's (GSPC) 49% stake in the Pipavav Power Company Limited to one private company, Swan Energy Limited (SEL).

A bench headed by chief justice SJ Mukhopadhyay asked the government to file an affidavit mentioning what corrections it intended to make in the entire process. The court also suggested that the state government should think of issuing a fresh tender after reconsidering the whole process.

Shaktisinh Gohil, leader of opposition in the Gujarat assembly, had filed a PIL through his counsel Anshin Desai, alleging a scam in the government's decision to sell off GSPC's 49% stake in the Pipavav Power Company for just Rs381 crore.

The PIL also says that, with only 49% shares in the Pipavav company, the SEL would get 70 percent carbon credit.

Gohil had stated in the petition that the state government, through the ministry of energy & petrochemicals, had doled out undue benefits to SEL by offering it GSPC's 49% shareholding in the Pipavav power company.

His petition further states: "[Through] the whole process of offering shareholding to an extent of 49% to SWAN Energy Ltd (SEL) without any publicity, or tender, in a manner which is not transparent, clean or in the interest of the public at large… a private company is being offered 49% shareholding capacity for Rs381 crore."

This amount, the petition states, has been claimed to be the value of the 49% shares of the Pipavav power company. The petition further alleges that this was a case where the SEL, through private negotiations, had been given 49% shareholding capacity in Pipavav power company.