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New Delhi , Sept. 25

THE Government is mulling the possibility of filing a review petition as one of the alternatives to break the logjam caused by the recent Supreme Court ruling directing the Centre to seek Parliamentary approval for selling its equity stake in HPCL and BPCL.

"The Government is keeping all options open including a review and clarification from the apex Court,'' the Disinvestment Minister, Mr Arun Shourie, told newspersons on Thursday after a meeting with the Law Minister, Mr Arun Jaitley.

The two Ministers met to discuss the features and consequences of the Supreme Court verdict, which has virtually halted the privatisation of the two oil companies.

The Disinvestment Ministry will give an option paper providing all the details pertaining to the privatisation proposals to the Law Minister by Friday. "Based on this, the Law Ministry will prepare an action plan for the consideration of the Cabinet Committee on Disinvestment," Mr Shourie said.

The CCD is slated to meet on October 3 for charting out the future course of action on disinvestment in HPCL and BPCL.

If the Government chooses to seek Parliamentary approval, the NDA would have to rely on the Congress to bail it through in the Rajya Sabha in the numbers game.

However, Mr Shourie said that the process of attaining Parliamentary approval as directed by the Supreme Court would slow down the disinvestment process.

Tthe Government fears that the verdict may result in a litany of court battles on a number of privatisation cases, both past and present, depressing bidder interest in the disinvestment process.

According to Mr Shourie, foreign investors have become apprehensive about the reform process, particularly privatisation, in the wake of the judgement.

The Court, in its judgement, had referred to a World Bank report which states that a privatisation law ``may have the advantage of mobilising explicit political support and commitment in favour of privatisation but the success of the programme hinges on, among other things, a basic consensus among Parliament, Government and the head of State.''

But the same report has also stated elsewhere that ``members of Parliament are usually neither the best informed nor the best placed to take speedy decisions that privatisation operations entail.''

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