Reliance Industries

Herbert Smith Freehills London senior associate Rajesh Chavda, will join Luthra & Luthra as a partner in its Delhi infrastructure and natural resources practice in April 2015.

Reliance Industries has replaced its ex-CJI SP Bharucha, who resigned last week as its arbitrator, with former UK appeals judge Bernard Rix as the third arbitrator in its dispute with the government over the KG-D6 basin, reported PTI.

Bharucha had reportedly recused himself after the government had objected to him because he had allegedly not disclosed his previous links to Reliance, after the parties had tussled for months to find mutually satisfactory arbitrators in the dispute.

Reliance Industries (RIL) Exploration & Production head legal, Naveen Raju, has joined Mahindra & Mahindra as its new group general counsel (GC).

The Supreme Court has selected former Australian high court judge Michael Kirby to chair over the arbitration between Reliance Industries and the Centre over KG Basin gas production, after five months ago Justice SS Nijjar, had already selected one and then another Australian ex-judge to preside after the first turned out to have been preferred by Reliance.

Justice JS Khehar has now confirmed Kirby, who will arbitrate alongside ex-Chief Justice of India’s (CJI) SP Bharucha and VN Khare - respectively Reliance and ministry nominees - reported the Times of India.

The Supreme Court of India has appointed ex Australian high court judge Michael Hudson McHugh to preside over the $1.8bn arbitration between the government and Reliance Industries (RIL) relating to the KG basin.

Supreme Court Justice SS Nijjar had originally picked ex-Australian Supreme Court judge James Spigelman in late March but several days later withdrew his suggestion because Spigelman was on a list of preferred arbitrators of Reliance.

Reliance counsel Harish Salve had requested a foreign arbitrator, while the oil ministry was rooting for an Indian head arbitrator. [PTI] [2 April: SC U-turns]

Supreme Court Justice SS Nijjar, who on Monday appointed a former Australian Supreme Court judge as the chief of three arbitrators to settle a $1.8bn dispute between Reliance Industries and the government, has withdrawn the suggestion.

The problem, said Nijjar, agreeing with objections from the government, was that James Spigelman's name was on a list of preferred arbitrators that had been prepared by Reliance, holding: "Although two lists have been duly supplied by the learned counsel for the parties, I am of the opinion, in the peculiar facts and circumstances of this case, it would be appropriate if an individual not named by any of the parties is appointed as the third arbitrator. I have discretely conducted a survey to find a suitable third arbitrator who is not a national of any of the parties involved in the dispute." [PTI] [Original appointment of 31 March]

An Indian Supreme Court bench headed up by Justice SS Nijjar has appointed ex-Australian SC judge James Spigelman to preside as arbitrator between Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries and the oil ministry. At stake is who whether Reliance will be able to recover $1.8bn in its costs from the government for developing the KG-D6 oil field.

Two arbitrators had already been decided on - ex Chief Justices SP Barucha and VN Khare, Reliance and the ministry's nominees respectively - but the parties and other arbitrators could not agree on a presiding arbitrator.

The oil ministry had pitched for an Indian arbitrator, because the law and subject matter of the agreement were Indian and since selection should take place under the Indian Arbitration and Conciliation Act 1996 and not the UN's Uncitral rules. Reliance counsel Harish Salve requested an arbitrator from a country other than India, the UK or Canada, since companies from each of those countries has a stake or role in the dispute, arguing that the procedure from the Uncitral rules should be followed. [Financial Express] [Background to dispute in Business Standard]

A Supreme Court three-judge bench headed by Justice BS Chauhan told the government to report on what it had done to investigate the Rs 6,500 crore investment into four Indian Indian Reliance Industries companies by what is allegedly a Singaporean shell company called Biometrix used for money laundering.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan and senior counsel Colin Gonsalves, who are appearing for the two petitioners in the case querying the gas price increase from Reliance's KG-D6 basis concession, alleged that Biometrix had no assets or equity and did not file tax returns in Singapore claiming a small-company exemption, but nevertheless made the single largest FDI into India from Singapore. Solicitor general Mohan Parasaran is appearing for the government. [Business Standard] [Economic Times]

K Law and Linklaters have advised Reliance Industries on its Rs 22bn ($450m) joint venture with Russian petro company Sibur, which was advised by Khaitan & Co and Herbert Smith, as Legally India had earlier reported.

Practising lawyers have largely expressed support for AZB & Partners and Justice R.V. Raveendran's shock recusal in the Ambani brothers' dispute, although several have questioned the timing and causes of the decision.