Rejecting the plea by power distribution companies -- BSES Yamuna Power Limited and BSES Rajdhani Power Limited -- to stay proceedings before the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission on the matter of cancellation of their licences, the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity on Wednesday directed the power regulator to go ahead with the hearing. The Delhi Government had threatened to cancel the discoms' licences if they resort to outages.
The Tribunal further directed the discoms to appear before DERC on Thursday and make their submissions. However, it asked DERC not to pass a final order without taking its permission. The power regulator had issued notices to the two companies to appear before it on Thursday.
The order came after counsel for Reliance-owned discoms BYPL and BRPL pleaded before the Tribunal that they had apprehension that DERC may pass some orders which may be prejudicial to them. Therefore, they pleaded that “suitable direction may be given to DERC not to proceed with the final order in the matter”.
“With regard to urgency of the matter, we deem it appropriate to direct the appellants (BYPL and BRPL) to appear before DERC on February 6 and make their submissions with regard to the letter of the Delhi Government and the DERC may continue to proceed with the matter by hearing the parties concerned,” the Tribunal said.
“But the Commission is directed not to pass the final order in the above proceedings without leave of the Tribunal,” it said.
The power generator, NTPC, had last week threatened to cut power supply to the two discoms if they fail to clear the dues by February 10. The discoms, which supply power to nearly 70 per cent areas in the city, had said that they did not have money to buy power and the city may face power outages of up to 10 hours if funds are not made available to them.
