SC dismisses plea challenging Vedanta-Cairn deal

SC dismisses plea challenging Vedanta-Cairn dealIndia's apex court, the Supreme Court of India has dismissed a plea challenging Vedanta-Cairn deal valued at US 8.5 billion on Thursday.

The SC threw out a PIL that challenged the validity of the deal. A bench of justices K. S. Radhakrishnan and Dipak Misra ruled that the decision was taken by the central government and the ONGC based on the deal and the court will not interfere with a judgment on the decision thatwas taken by parties in business dealing after due deliberations.

Cairn Energ had announced its plans to sell its majority stake in its India unit to Vedanta Resources. The multibillion-dollar deal between the mining giants allowed UK based Vedanta to expand its presence in the Indian market. Vedanta currently owns 59 per cent stake in Cairn India.

Cairn India has paid Rs 3,000 crore to state-run ONGC towards its share of royalty till September 2011 for the Barmer oilfield in Rajasthan. The takeover by Vedanta of Cairn was approved by the government on the condition that the company pays a royalty from the country's largest onshore field.

The court delivered the judgment on the PIL filed by a Bangalore resident Arun Kumar Agarwal.