(FE)
In a major relief to Adani Gas, the Supreme Court on Tuesday quashed the Petroleum & Natural Gas Regulatory Board’s (PNGRB) decisions that restricted the company from developing City Gas Distribution (CGD) network in Jaipur and Udaipur in Rajasthan.
A bench headed by Arun Mishra, while quashing the 2011 orders that restrained Adani from network expansion in the two cities, asked the board to take a fresh call on the issue. Adani had appealed against the Rajasthan High Court’s April 2015 order that held that the company did not have the authorisation from the Centre to continue work in the two cities.
The company had challenged the vires of Regulation 18 of the PNGRB (Authorizing Entities to Lay, Build, Operate or Expand City Local Natural Gas Distribution Networks) Regulations, 2008, as being contrary to and violative of the PNGRB Act, 2006. Adani argued that the Rajasthan government was “bound by the principle of legitimate expectation and promissory estoppel,” and its actions of issuing the public notice in 2016 to invite bids was “illegal, contrary and bad in law.”
