The Hindu Business Line : SC allows Reliance Power IPO launch on Jan 15

New Delhi, Jan. 11 The Supreme Court on Friday passed a blanket interim order allowing Reliance Power Ltd to launch its Rs 10,000-crore initial public offering (IPO) as scheduled on January 15 notwithstanding any order passed by any other court in the country against the IPO.

A three-Judge Bench comprising the Chief Justice Mr K.G. Balakrishnan, Mr Justice R.V. Raveendran and Mr Justice J.M. Panchal, passed this order on an urgent application moved by Reliance Power seeking stay of the proceedings in a suit initiated in Mumbai against the launch of the IPO.

After hearing senior counsel Mr Harish Salve and Mr Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for RPL, the Bench in its brief order said “interim stay of the proceedings in the suit before the City Civil Court, Mumbai. The IPO of RPL may be continued despite any interim ex parte order passed by any other court”.

Mr Salve submitted, “Two days ago, a petition was filed in Gujarat High Court. Now, a suit is filed in Mumbai. This has become a flagrant abuse of the law. What is going on against the company is terrible. There will be international repercussions if the IPO is stopped by some court in some remote corner of the country. The lead managers, who are public sector banks may not like to disobey the order and the company will be in trouble”. He pleaded that the court should pass an order that the IPO could go on notwithstanding any order passed or to be passed by any court in the country.

In its application, the RPL said, “There is a mala fide and an illegal campaign by certain interested persons to somehow stall or delay the IPO, which has been approved by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and other statutory authorities. The said IPO is for the purposes of establishing large thermal power projects of the Government of India with private participation to generate 28,000 MW”.

The application said, “The RPL IPO will be country’s largest; the complaints have already been rejected by the Bombay High Court, the SEBI and the Ministry; the IPO has been cleared by SEBI after intense scrutiny; crores of application forms have been distributed across the country; media, broking and banking channels are fully activated nationwide”. If an order of injunction was not passed the company would be greatly prejudiced and irreparable loss would be caused, the application said.

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