KG Basin Dispute: Australian Judge Appointed as Arbitrator

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday appointed retired Australian judge Michael Kirby as chairman of the three-member arbitration panel to resolve the dispute between the Centre and Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) on KG basin.

The name of Mr Kirby, former judge of the Australian High Court, was suggested to Justice J S Khehar by RIL's senior advocate Harish Salve and consented by Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar, who had only one reservation that the third member who was to be an international person must be a judge and not an advocate.

Other two members of the Arbitral Tribunal are former Chief Justices of India - S P Bharucha and V N Khare.

The need for a third member has been there for quite some time after another arbitrator, also a former Australian judge Michael Hudson McHugh appointed on April 29, had recused himself.

Hudson McHugh was named as chairman of the Arbitral Tribunal as the apex court had on April 2 withdrawn the appointment of James Spigelman, ex-Chief Justice and LG of New South Wales, Australia.

Mr Spigelman's appointment was withdrawn after the Centre drew the attention of Justice S S Nijjar (since retired) that his name was mentioned in the list of names proposed by the Reliance group for appointment as an independent arbitrator.

Justice Nijjar had on March 31 passed an order on the issue of appointment of independent arbitrator as the Chairman of the Arbitral Tribunal.

While RIL has nominated former Justice Bharucha as its arbitrator, the Centre chose Justice Khare as its nominee.

The Supreme Court decided to appoint an international arbitrator as the chairman for adjudication of dispute between Reliance Industries Ltd and the government over recovery of cost for developing the country's key natural gas field in KG basin.