The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the government to file a status report with regard to the CBI investigation into alleged irregularities in the stake sale of Hindustan Zinc (HZL) in the previous NDA regime in 2003.
A bench headed by justice J Chelameswar gave the CBI and the government time till October 14 to respond on the time frame to take a final call on the issue. Earlier, it had sought reply from the finance and mines ministries, Vedanta Group?s Sterlite Ventures, HZL and CBI on a petition against the stake sale.
Additional solicitor general Tushar Mehta told the bench that a final decision with regard to divestment of HZL would be taken only after 3-4 months. He further told the court that no decision could be taken so far as finance minister Arun Jaitley was ?indisposed? due to a surgery and not available for discussions on the matter.
Counsel Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the HZL officers? association, argued that the CBI has so far only registered a preliminary enquiry against Vedanta promoter Anil Agarwal and unknown officials in the matter and no FIR has been filed yet.
It is alleged that Sterlite Industries, part of Vedanta Resources, had picked up a majority stake in the PSU at an undervalued price, resulting in estimated losses running into hundreds of crores to the exchequer.
The government plans to raise at least R15,000 crore in FY15 through the residual stake it holds in HZL and Balco. The Centre holds 29.5% in HZL. Vedanta Resources had acquired the majority shareholding of the two companies in 2003 from the central government. It was the valuation of those deals which the CBI started looking into in December 2013.
Even the former Attorney General and the law ministry had held that the residual stake can go ahead without amending the Metal Corporation Act and that the CBI investigation would have no bearing on any future stake sale in HZL or Balco.
The apex court also sought to stall the divestment till a CBI inquiry into earlier stake sales of HZL and Balco by the Centre is completed.
