Supreme Court rejects further disinvestment of Hindustan Zinc Ltd.

In an important judgment, the Supreme Court has rejected the proposal of the government to dilute its 29% shares in Hindustan Zinc Limited stating that a Parliament decision is required in the matter since the corporation was formed by an act of Parliament.  The apex court also asked the government, why it is in a hurry to sell the government assets. When the advocate for Vedanta, the company which has the majority shares with it, pointed out that when they took over the company it was loss-making, but now it is profitable because of its present management, the SC commented that why not the government also gets a part of the profit because of its shares. SC also asked the Advocate General “What is the hurry to hand over valuable assets worth lakhs of crores? Without permission of the court you can’t go for disinvestment”. As such the disinvestment of residual stake  of the company has been stopped for the present.