The Bombay High Court, while pronouncing the verdict on the gas disputeon Monday, advised the Ambani brothers for the second time to settle their rowin consultation with their mother.

An executive with Anil Ambani’s camp said: “In case the Mukesh Ambani groupfails to agree with the terms and conditions of the new gas sale agreement, wewill request Kokilaben to intervene in the matter, as requested by the court.”

In RIL’s case, an executive with the company said the order is not differentfrom the earlier single-bench judgment, but he also added that the MukeshAmbani camp will consider approaching the Supreme Court to protect theinterests of shareholders.

Similarly, both the groups were to meet for settling the row over the merger ofAnil’s Reliance Communication (RCom) with South African telecom giant MTN inmid-2008. That time, Mukesh had claimed right of first refusal (RoFR) for theshares of RCom. Following this, the proposed talks between the groups did nothappen and RCom called off the deal.

Many times, the stocks of both group companies shot through the roof on rumoursof a settlement between the brothers. The man who helped broker the demerger ofthe Reliance empire in 2005, K V Kamath, was rumoured to be playing mediatoragain in the fight. Both the group officials denied such moves on everyoccasion.

According to legal sources, the Ambani brothers are yet to sort at least adozen issues even four years after splitting the Reliance business empire. Theunresolved issues include claim over properties, such as a building in Mumbai’sBandra-Kurla Complex (BKC), a property in Mehrauli on the Delhi-Gurgaonhighway, the Richmond Road property in Bangalore and some residential flatsoccupied by employees of both groups, in addition to the fight over shares ofsome companies which formed a part of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group after thedivision of assets in June 2005.