Essar Steel fails to get stay on RIL gas allocation

Essar Steel's petition challenging the union government's decision to give top priority to the 'core' sector like fertiliser and power plants in the allocation of gas from Reliance Industries Ltd's Krishna-Godavari D6 field was not as immediately successful as it might have hoped, as the Delhi high court refusing to grant a stay on the order for now.

Heading the bench hearing the petition, justice S Muralidhar said, ''Right now I am not going to stay the order,'' when the centre said it would give its opinion on the plea after perusing the Bombay high court's order on a similar petition.

''Right now we cannot give an opinion without perusing the Bombay high court order on the issue. We will have to take an instruction as well,'' additional solicitor general A S Chandiok told the court.

The matter has been posted for further hearing on 12 May.

Essar Steel had moved the Delhi high court against an order from the oil ministry to RIL to prioritise the 'core' sector in supplying gas from its block off the Andhra Pradesh coast (See: Essar Steel, others move court against cut in RIL gas supply).

RIL started implementing the order from Monday, cutting natural gas supplies to non-core users like refineries, steel plants and petrochemical units so that the demand of fertiliser, power and cooking gas extraction plants can be met in full.