Delhi High Court on Tuesday declined to intervene in government's decision to sell Baroda-based unit of Indian Petro-Chemicals Ltd (IPCL) directly to the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) without global bidding.

Dismissing a petition challenging divesting of its stake by the IPCL management to IOC, a division bench comprising Chief Justice Arijit Passayat and Justice D K Jain, said that no malafide intention could be attributed to the deal.
Transferring of its unit by IPCL to IOC was challenged in a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) by Bibhu Prasad Tripathi, who alleged that there was Suspicion of malafide transaction between the two public sector companies.
Rejecting the contention of petitioner's counsel Surat Singh that the transfer was against disinvestment commission guidelines, the court said those guidelines might not apply in the case because no private company was involved.
The court made it clear that if any other bidder had any objection on the deal between the two PSUS, they were free to move the court to challenge the government decision.

Bureau Report