Delhi high court to hear discoms before RWAs, NGOs

NEW DELHI: The Delhi high court on Tuesday said it would first decide the plea seeking an audit of accounts of Delhi's three private discoms by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India before dealing with other matters on the subject. It was hearing a PIL filed by NGO United RWAs Joint Action (URJA) seeking a CBI or independent probe into alleged irregularities committed by them as well as a CAG audit of their accounts. 

The PIL has said the then state government had given into pressure from the companies which sought a hike in tariff by faking losses and failed to fix the tariff for 2010-11. "We will go by the order dated August 24, 2011, and will deal with that limited issue (of CAG audit) first," a bench of justices Pradeep Nandrajog and Jayant Nath said and fixed the matter for hearing on March 20. 

The high court had, on August 24, 2011, said, "...the issue that requires to be dwelt upon and addressed is the jurisdiction of CAG in respect of the said companies. It is further canvassed by them the same has to be tested on the anvil of the Constitution of India and the CAG Act, 1971. That apart, it is urged by them (discoms) once there has been a privatization of the electricity companies, they are not covered by the aforesaid Act. Issue notice on the question of admission. Regard being had to the limited lis (litigation) that has emerged before us, we would like the respondents (discoms and others) to file their respective counter affidavits only in this regard...," the bench said. 

During the hearing, Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the NGO, said, "This a very important public issue and this needs to be settled." "Of course, we will settle it for you," the bench said and enquired about the status of the appeals filed by discoms against a single-judge bench order refusing to stay the Aam Aadmi Party-led government's decision asking CAG to audit their accounts. The appeals were listed before another bench, Bhushan said. 

Three private discoms had filed appeals before a larger bench of the high court against a single judge bench order that had refused to stay the government's decision on CAG audit. The single judge bench had on January 24 not only refused to stall the CAG audit of discoms but also asked them to cooperate with the top auditor by furnishing the details sought.

with thanks : Times of India : LINK