Discom dispute: SC asks APTEL to defer February 12 hearing

Supreme Court today asked the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity to defer its February 12 hearing on a plea by state-owned power generating companies seeking direction to the private discoms BSES Rajdhani and BSES Yamuna to pay current dues for the year 2014.
"We direct the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity to defer the hearing," a bench of Justice Kurian Joseph and Justice N V Ramana said while noting that the petition on the issue was scheduled for hearing before the apex court on February 18.
The two private discoms are involved in the legal tussle with Indraprastha Power Generation Company Limited, Pragati Power Company Limited and Delhi Transco Limited.

During the hearing, Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta contended that the companies have filed a contempt plea before the apex court for non-compliance of its March 26, 2014 order on payment of dues.
He said Tata's discom North Delhi Power Ltd (NDPL) is paying the dues as per the accepted structure.
The other two discoms through their lawyers submitted that they could not take recourse to section 142 of the Electricity Act, 2003.
At the outset, senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for BSES, said the matter concerns subsidies to be paid by Delhi government to the distribution companies and could not be mixed up with the issue of tariff structure pending before another bench of the court.

Senior advocate C S Vaidyanathan, appearing for the Reliance discoms, told the court that Rs 20,000 crore was owed to them by the government and was being treated as a regulatory asset.