Gas row: Former UK judge is RIL’s arbitrator

New Delhi, December 11

Reliance Industries has named former UK judge Sir Bernard Rix as its arbitrator in the KG-D6 cost recovery dispute with the government in place of former Chief Justice of India SP Bharucha who quit last week.

RIL gave the name of Rix, who recently retired as Lord Justice of Appeal with 20 years experience in the Commercial Court and the Court of Appeal, earlier this week, sources privy to the development said.

He will sit on a three-member arbitration panel headed by Supreme Court-appointed neutral arbitrator Michael Kirby, a former Judge of an Australian High Court, to decide if the government was right in disallowing over $2.3 billion of KG-D6 cost as output lagged targets.

The government has named former Chief Justice of India VN Khare as its arbitrator on the panel.

Sources said Bharucha recused himself from the arbitration after the government challenged his nomination saying that he had not disclosed all previous associations with RIL and that his arbitration could create doubts about his independence and impartiality. — PTI