HPCL, BPCL sale: Shourie gets OK from Solicitor Gen

With the Opposition once again raising objections to the legality of the decision to sell HPCL and BPCL, Disinvestment Minister Arun Shourie...

With the Opposition once again raising objections to the legality of the decision to sell HPCL and BPCL, Disinvestment Minister Arun Shourie has said that he will seek the Attorney General’s opinion and present it to the Rajya Sabha.

Shourie told the Rajya Sabha that he had consulted Solicitor General Kirit Raval on the issue and had advised the government that it was not bound to privatise companies like BPCL and HPCL through Parliament.

Sources say that Shourie rang up Raval who was away in Bangalore to attend a National Law School programme. Raval, when contacted by The Indian Express declined to comment but according to sources he is said to have opined that there is no legal impediment to disinvestment in BPCL and HPCL.

Story continues below this ad

For, once the Government acquired them through separate Acts in the seventies, they came under the purview of the Companies Act which permits the Government to change its equity holding through an executive order.

Even otherwise, the HPCL and BPCL Acts do not put any restriction on the extent to which the Government can dilute its equity in those companies. This is unlike, say, the Coal Nationalisation Act which expressly forbids the Government to reduce its holding below 51 per cent.