New York, July 30 - The partisan stand adopted by India's petroleum ministry in the dispute over natural gas between two corporate houses will erode investor confidence and goes against the government's reforms direction, industrialist Anil Ambani has said.

In an interview to the Wall Street Journal, Ambani, whose Reliance Natural Resources is fighting a legal battle with brother Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries over supply of gas from fields off the Andhra Pradesh coast, said the oil ministry's position also violated the sanctity of contracts.

'Clearly, the petroleum ministry's unfortunate intervention in a corporate commercial dispute in this manner, if permitted to continue, will erode investor confidence and thwart the government's efforts to attract investments into India,' said Anil Ambani.

'In complete reversal to the entire direction of economic reforms being implemented by our respected Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the petroleum ministry is regrettably pursuing a different path,' he charged.

Ambani also said that the oil ministry was seeking a return of the erstwhile regime of command and control, often referred to as the 'licence permit raj', when all business decisions had to be authorised by the government on an ad-hoc basis.

He said by intervening in the dispute, the ministry was aiming to re-write a valid production-sharing contract after nearly 10 years, and also seeking to cancel a bonafide agreement between third party corporate entities.