PETRONET LNG LTD Vs. INDIAN PETRO GROUP

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE plaintiff seeks permanent injunction restraining the defendants, their successors, assigns, etc or anybody claiming through them, from publishing confidential and/or misleading information relating to the plaintiff's negotiations and contracts, in the form of articles or news items or in any other form, in the website www.indianpetro.com and its sister or other websites, or through e-mail alerts, without the written consent of the plaintiff; It also seeks mandatory injunction directing the defendants, their successors, assigns, etc. to unconditionally remove the confidential and misleading information/news items/articles detailed in paragraph 19 of the plaint from the defendants' said website www.indianpetro.com.

(2.) THE Plaintiff is a listed, joint venture company promoted by four Public Sector Undertakings, (viz, GAIL (India) Limited, Oil Natural Gas Corporation Limited Indian Oil Corporation Limited and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited with an authorized share capital of Rs. 1200 crores, to import Liquefied Natural Gas (hereafter referred as "LNG" ) and set up LNG terminals in the country, Gaz De France, a French national gas company, through its investment subsidiary GDF International, holds a minority stake of 10% equity in the plaintiff as a strategic partner, Asian Development Bank holds 5.2% equity stake as an investor and 34.8% of the equity in the plaintiff is held by the general public.

(3.) THE defendants have been publishing several news items/articles relating to the plaintiff in the suit website from time to time since 2003, and, barring a few items/articles published in June 2005, April and May 2006 they only published such information which was already in the public domain or which never affected its (the plaintiff's) interests in any manner. The plaintiff has no objection to the publication of news items or articles involving it, which are already in the public domain. It is, however, averred that unauthorized publishing of sensitive information shared between the plaintiff and international LNG sellers, present and/or prospective, or publishing of half-baked or misleading reports about the plaintiff or its commercial transactions, as it is bound to have serious repercussions on the plaintiff, cannot be permitted. This is in view of facts relating to the terms of LNG sale and purchase, particularly terms like price and quantity are negotiated separately for each transaction, if published have impact on potential agreements, which could lead to failure of negotiations. The adverse impact on publication could also be existing Sale and Purchase agreements getting breached/terminated (if there are disclosures about that agreement), the plaintiff facing claims for damages, and even on adverse impact on the plaintiff in the stock market. It is contended that any adverse impact on the plaintiff's transactions or potential transactions would have an adverse chain reaction on other stake - holders in the petroleum sector.