While pointing out to legal hurdles faced by them in their takeover bid, senior counsels Ranjit Kumar and Anoop Chaudhari told the court that the IPL-ILCS combine was willing to invest the money if the government permitted it to do so.

Besides, they said that there was no need to amend the Act and revival was possible within the existing legal framework.

Accepting the argument of IPL-ILCS, Additional Solicitor-General Amarender Saran said that the Centre was in favour of reviving the cooperative and it can be done without amending the Act.

However, it further said that another cooperative National Consumer Cooperative Federation was also willing to bid for Super Bazar.

The Centre in its affidavit submitted that the suggested amendment of the Act for "Super Bazar alone may not be justified and might create an unhealthy precedent that may be taken recourse to by any defunct and mismanaged Multi-State Cooperative Society. Therefore, government of India is not inclined to consider amendments in the Act."

Earlier, IPL-ILCS combine had said the Rs 288 crore bid submitted by Reliance did not meet technical parameters as its bid was not in conformity with tender documents and also violated Section 33 and Section 67 of the Act.

As per Section 33, no individual or a company can hold more than one-fifth of the cooperative's total equity, it had said, adding RIL's bid cannot exceed Rs 10 crore (Rs 100 million) as Super Bazar's increased authorised share capital is Rs 50 crore (Rs 500 million).

Super Bazar Karamchari Dalit Sangh president Jagdish Choudhary said Reliance's pull out would pave the way for the takeover of the cooperative by IPL-ILCS combine.

The employee union had challenged the government's June 2002 decision to wind up the cooperative, saying the evaluation committee constituted by the court was allegedly in favour of RIL's bid on account of its financial capacity and development plan for reviving the cooperative.

The union said that the committee has been swayed merely by the financial strength and has overlooked the Reliance bid that suffers from basic infirmities.

Reliance, which has entered the organised retail business through Reliance Retail, had proposed to invest Rs 60 crore (Rs 600 million) in the share capital of Super Bazar, with another Rs 85 crore (Rs 850 million) for working capital.

It had also offered to spend Rs 143 crore (Rs 1.43 billion) to revamp the chain and expand to retailing pharmaceuticals, fruit and vegetables, online shopping and institutional sales.