Ownership battle of Haldia worsens as Chatterjee Group drags Bengal govt to international court

30-Mar-12

In this week's board meeting of Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd, it was decided that West Bengal state industries and commerce minister Partho Chatterjee will replace TCG's Purnendu Chatterjee as the Chairman of HPL. News follows that Purnendu Chatterjee's The Chatterjee Group (TCG), has approached the International Court of Arbitration (ICA), under the International Chamber of Commerce. "TCG has filed an arbitration at the ICC, headquartered in Paris, early this month. The charges levelled against the state government is the violation of past agreements - which is an international deal - not being followed," said an official source close to TCG. The ICA is the world's leading institution for resolving international commercial and business disputes. Cases are filed under this body if the parties are from different national, cultural and legal backgrounds and want to avoid litigation, as they fear bias in a separate country. According to sources, TCG has approached the court as it came as a non-resident Indian investor and the agreement is of international standard. Currently, the disputed shares between both the parties are 155 mln, which is about 10% of the total 1,560 million of the firm. Last year, the Supreme Court had dismissed the TCG petition against a decision of the Calcutta High Court.