Telangana High Court on Thursday quashed the Central government order issued a year ago instructing Telagana State government to pay ₹3,441.78 crore in principal plus ₹3,315.14 crore late payment surcharge to its counterpart in Andhra Pradesh as part of post-bifurcation power dues.
A bench of Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice N.V. Shravan Kumar, pronouncing verdict in a batch of writ petitions challenging the Union government’s order, gave liberty to the parties to take recourse to remedy available in law. “...In our opinion, it is eminently desirable that the dispute between them is resolved amicably, preferably through mediation,” the bench said in the judgement. The bench hoped the two governments would sort out the disputes through mediation.
The PPAs envisaged alternative forums for resolution of disputes. Without resorting to them, the APGenco approached the Union government under Section 92 of the AP Reorganisation Act, the judgement said. The Telangana State Discoms had not admitted the quantum of power dues to be paid to APGenco pertaining to the supply of electricity from June 2, 2014 to June 10, 2017.
