The Supreme Court on Monday issued a notice to the Centre on a petition challenging the validity of its decision to privatise public sector oil giants BPCL and HPCL without seeking Parliamentary approval.A division bench comprising Justice S. Rajendra Babu and Justice G.P. Mathur issued the notice on a petition by the Centre for Public Interest Litigation, which contended that the decision could have only been taken through a Parliament Act. The government had on January 26 last decided to sell its 34.01 per cent stake in HPCL to a strategic investor and divest 38.2 per cent in BPCL through market offering, six days after AG Soli Sorabjee opined that Parliament’s approval was not required for the same. HPCL and BPCL, which together command 40 per cent petro market share, were nationalised through a Parliament Act in the 1970s and the petitioner contended that divestment in these two oil firms could be done either by repealing or amending the acquisition acts and there was no other way of going about it. It said no executive action could be taken in violation of parliamentary enactments.
