The Aam Aadmi Party government will move the Supreme Court against the Delhi high court order on Friday that quashed its decision to get the accounts of the city’s three private power distribution com
The Aam Aadmi Party government will move the Supreme Court against the Delhi high court order on Friday that quashed its decision to get the accounts of the city’s three private power distribution companies (discoms) audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General.
In August, a draft report of the CAG audit of the three discoms had revealed that they had inflated their previous losses. The AAP government had contended that a CAG audit of private discoms was required to clarify alleged anomalies in their accounts.
Earlier in the day, a division bench of Chief Justice G. Rohini and Justice R.S. Endlaw ruled against the audit, saying “there can be no other audit at the instance of state government” as there is already a regulatory body, DERC, with power to audit accounts of discoms. “All the power of the state government relating to electricity now stands vested in DERC.” Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said the high court’s order was a “temporary setback” for the people of the Delhi and that he was committed to provide cheap electricity to people.
“Delhi HC order is a temporary setback for the people of Delhi. Delhi government will soon file an appeal in SC. I am committed to providing cheap electricity to people of Delhi. Our fight will continue (sic),” Mr Kejriwal said in a series of his tweets.
The three private city discoms — Tata Power Delhi Distribution Ltd (TPDDL), BSES Rajdhani Power Ltd and BSES Yamuna Power Ltd — had challenged the AAP government’s January 7, 2014 decision of ordering a CAG audit of their accounts. The discoms had also challenged an order of a single judge of the high court, who had refused to stall the CAG audit. The single judge, in his January 24, 2014 order, had also asked the discoms to “fully cooperate with CAG in the audit process.”
The audit of the discoms under the prevalent legal regime cannot serve the object of bringing down power tariff, the bench said in its 139-page judgment, “even if were to find that the allegations (of inflating their previous losses) against the discoms to be true.” “Once the discoms before incurring any expenditure above a limit are required to obtain the prior approval of the DERC, therefore once DERC approved the said expenditure, we fail to see how the CAG can be allowed to arrive at different conclusion.” The bench also described chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s decision to audit the discoms as a “misguided exercise.” “The Delhi government, instead of strengthening the DERC, we are constrained to observe, has undertaken a misguided exercise by issuing a direction to the CAG to audit the accounts of the discoms when the report of such audit would not have any sanctity in law for achieving the desired result.” Earlier, the city government had told the court that a CAG audit of the private discoms here was necessary as these companies discharged “public function.”
The discoms are a 51:49 joint venture between the private companies and the Delhi government. The AAP government had said it was not trying to stop the functioning of discoms or trying to interfere, but was only trying to bring them under public audit, as 49 per cent stake in the discoms was held by the Delhi government which has also infused capital in these companies.
