Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC), which has already suspended operations since August 28, 2020 following a Supreme Court order, will remain shut for another four weeks.
Due to CERC’s failure in appointing a mandatory Member (Law) in its quorum, the Supreme Court, on October 26, 2020, directed that CERC be suspended for a period of four more weeks. The matter will now come up for hearing next on December 4, 2020.
It may be recalled that in April 2018, Supreme Court ruled that CERC and all state electricity regulatory commissions (SERCs) should have one Member (Law) in its quorum. Such a member should have the qualifications of a High Court or District Court judge.
However, the Union power ministry has failed to appoint such a member so far, and the CERC is therefore in a state of suspension since August 28, 2020. The power ministry has now asked the Supreme Court for four more weeks to complete the appointment, which would be done by a Cabinet Committee.
Currently, CERC has a chairman, R.K. Pujari and two other members – Indu Shekhar Jha (former CMD, Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd) and Arun Goyal (Retired Secretary, Government of India). There is also one ex-officio member belonging to Central Electricity Authority (CEA).
The two members, other than the ex-officio member, have been asked to proceed on leave by a Supreme Court order of August 28, 2020. Due to this, CERC cannot complete the quorum (of Chairman and two members) and is hence in a state of non-operation.
Pending Cases
According to information available, there are currently 1,000 cases pending with CERC. Out of these, hearing on 173 is completed but the final judgement has been reserved. Besides the ongoing cases, there are around 450 applications pending for hearing at CERC.
A prominent case with CERC is that of ACME Solar that has sought cancellation of its 600-mw solar project in Rajasthan that it had won in 2018, quoting a record tariff of Rs.2.44 per kwh. In its petition, the company has cited the Corona pandemic as a reason to cancel the project and the PPAs entered into. In fact, ACME Solar is learnt to have filed an application in the Supreme Court seeking permission for CERC to pronounce orders on cases for which CERC has completed hearing before August 28, 2020, but has yet to pronounce its orders.
(Featured collage showing logos of CERC and CEA; and the State Emblem of India has been sourced from indialegallive.com)
