Another court battle against privatisation
Unions are set for another court battle against the privatisation of Hindustan and Bharat Petroleum, despite a Supreme Court decision on 24th March not to ask the government to suspend the process.
This week the Oil Sector Officers' Association will call on the Delhi High Court to block the privatisation process by ruling that only parliament - which reassembled 7th April - can decide the BPCL and HPCL privatisation. In its March ruling the Supreme Court referred to the BALCO privatisation where it declined to decide economic issues.
However, unions insist that BALCO and oil privatisation are different. "BALCO was a government company from the start," says OSOA convenor Ashok Singh.
"HPCL and BPCL were created by Acts of parliament."
