A public sector undertaking (PSU) cannot insult former judges of constitutional courts after agreeing to utilise their services as arbitrators, the Supreme Court observed on Wednesday, as it pulled up the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) for haggling over the arbitration fee.
A bench, headed by Chief Justice of India NV Ramana, noted that two retired high court judges chose to opt out of the arbitration proceedings involving ONGC and a private entity, just to ward off any embarrassment to them due to the PSU’s conduct.
“You (ONGC) are insulting judges because you think you have a lot of money. You think you can say anything, do anything,” the bench, which also included justices AS Bopanna and Hima Kohli, told ONGC’s counsel after taking up the case on its own.
The bench also called upon attorney general KK Venugopal to apprise him of the reason why retired judges of the high court did not wish to be part of the arbitral tribunal set up by the apex court to resolve the dispute between ONGC and M/s Schlumberger Asia Services Ltd.
The bench read out to A-G a letter written by justice SC Dhamadhikari, former judge of the Bombay high court, who sought to recuse himself in October as an arbitrator following the recusal by justice SJ Vazifadar, former chief justice of the Punjab and Haryana high court in June. Justice Dharmadhikari’s letter stated that ONGC was not agreeable to pay the fee of the arbitrators as decided by the arbitral tribunal, appointed by the top court in January this year. ONGC maintained it would pay the fee only as per the terms of its contract with Schlumberger.
{{/usCountry}}The bench read out to A-G a letter written by justice SC Dhamadhikari, former judge of the Bombay high court, who sought to recuse himself in October as an arbitrator following the recusal by justice SJ Vazifadar, former chief justice of the Punjab and Haryana high court in June. Justice Dharmadhikari’s letter stated that ONGC was not agreeable to pay the fee of the arbitrators as decided by the arbitral tribunal, appointed by the top court in January this year. ONGC maintained it would pay the fee only as per the terms of its contract with Schlumberger.
{{/usCountry}}“Mr Attorney General, we want to bring to your notice the arrogance, behaviour and conduct of ONGC. We think they have a lot of money so they think they can do anything. Judges are recusing because they don’t want to be embarrassed. What is this attitude of ONGC? We want to issue a notice of contempt,” the bench told Venugopal.
The court added: “They don’t have any respect for the judges. Every other day, public sector undertakings are filing frivolous cases but they don’t want to pay fees to the judges and are making such arrogant arguments.”
Venugopal said the January order of the bench made it absolutely clear that fee shall be decided by the arbitrators and will be borne equally by all the parties and therefore, ONGC cannot insist on fee as per the contract.
“It is a very embarrassing situation. No former judge will come forward to act as an arbitrator for your PSUs. You appoint your own arbitrators and don’t ask for judges as arbitrators if you cannot respect them,” said the bench.
As the top law officer assured that he would look into the matter, the bench deferred the proceedings by a week, recording Venugopal’s appearance in the case.
Schlumberger, a Hong Kong-based company with its project office in India, is a leading oilfield service provider.
By consent of ONGC and Schlumberger, the Supreme Court on January 4 appointed former Calcutta HC chief justice JN Patel and justice Vazifadar as arbitrators. Justice Dharmadhikari was appointed in place of justice Vazifadar in July after the latter recused himself.