New Delhi: The Supreme Court has said that the Ambani family will get Z+ category security cover across the country and abroad – for which they themselves will pay.
Z+ is the highest security cover category. Mukesh Ambani, a billionaire, is one of the world’s richest businessmen.
LiveLaw has reported that a bench of Justice Krishna Murari and Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah said that when the Ambanis are in India, the Maharashtra government and the Union home ministry are to ensure their security.
When abroad, just the Union home ministry is to ensure the same.
“We are of the considered opinion that if there is a security threat, the security cover provided and that too at own expense of the respondents, cannot be restricted to a particular area or place of stay. Looking into the business activities of the respondent nos. 2 to 6 (Ambani and his family members) within the country as also outside the country, the very purpose of providing security cover would stand frustrated, if the same is restricted to a particular place or area,” the apex court said, according to Bar and Bench.
Several litigations on the matter were pending in various parts of the country. The Supreme Court bench’s order intends to give quietus to the disputes.
In 2022, the Tripura high court had directed an officer of the Union home ministry appear before it with relevant information on the threat perception to Mukesh Ambani, wife Nita, and children Akash, Anant and Isha.
In June, 2022, a Supreme Court vacation bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice J.B. Pardiwala had stayed the orders seeking the production of the files. By August, a three-judge bench of the apex court had closed a petition before it and the one being heard by the Tripura HC too, asking the Union government to provide security to the Ambanis at their own expense, citing that the Ambanis were “promoters of, and in the management of, some of India’s biggest and most prominent companies.”
The apex court’s current ruling comes in response to a miscellaneous application filed by one Bikash Saha who had initially questioned the necessity for security to the Ambanis at the Tripura HC.