Wednesday, June 22 2005 17:01 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Government today (Jun 22,2005) said it would continue to do its work on the complaints filed by Anil Ambani, who reached a settlement with elder brother Mukesh last week on the ownership issues of Reliance empire, relating to functioning of the group companies.

"Government has its own way of working. Once a complaint is filed, we have to have certain procedure for follow up," Company Affairs Minister Prem Chand Gupta said in New Delhi, when asked if Government would pursue the matter despite the settlement between the two brothers.

He told reporters on the sidelines of a seminar on "Corporate Governance" organized by ASSOCHAM that his Ministry had asked for "certain information" from Registrar of Companies (RoC) at Mumbai and Ahmedabad and would decide on the future course of Asked on the time frame by which the Government expected a report, he said, "I don't think we have to push for that report." A day after settlement, Anil had ruled out withdrawing complaints filed by him to various Government agencies and regulatory bodies saying "I performed my fiduciary duties" by raising issues of corporate governance in the group companies and it was for the authorities to decide now.

Gupta said both Mukesh and Anil had met him from time to time and certain issues were raised. Though peace has been restored, settlement and complaints were separate issues, he said.

Asked on comments by Finance Minister P Chidambaram that the matter should be closed post-settlement, he said they were two different organs of the Government, though there was no conflict of opinion between the two.

Besides writing to Ministries of Company Affairs that a number of papers were missing from Registrar of Companies and raising the issues of corporate governance, Anil had also met Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) chairman M Damodaran and sent a number of communications to the market regulator.

After the settlement, even SEBI maintained a silence with Damodaran saying that he would not comment about any individual companies.