The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Thursday stayed a Single Bench order that had restrained the Tamil Nadu Electricity Regulatory Commission (TNERC) from passing final orders on the electricity tariff [hike proposal] petitions, filed by the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (Tangedco)/Tamil Nadu Transmission Corporation(Tantransco)/State Load Despatch Centre (SLDC), till a legal member is appointed to the commission.
A Division Bench of Justices S.S. Sundar and S. Srimathy stayed the Single Bench order after hearing elaborate arguments in the case. The court was hearing a batch of appeals, including the appeals preferred by the State government and the TNERC.
A Single Bench of the court, while disposing of a batch of petitions, restrained TNERC from passing final orders on the tariff petitions. The Single Bench had said that the present proceedings could go on and everything could be finalised by the current TNERC except for the formal declaration of orders on the tariff petitions. It said the moment when the appointment of the legal member was notified, the TNERC was free to formally dispose of the tariff petitions. The restraint order of the court would operate till then and not a moment thereafter, it observed.
Senior counsel P. Wilson, representing the State government, submitted that tariff fixation is a regulatory process and the Supreme Court in 2018 had held that for the activities relating to adjudication only by the Electricity commissions, a member with legal background is mandatory. He submitted that the appointment of a legal member to the TNERC was under active consideration.
Further, he submitted that Tangedco was suffering a loss of ₹13,407 crore per annum and if tariff is not fixed [hiked], there will be a further loss of ₹1,500 crore per month. He submitted that the Union government had already given warnings to Tangedco to revise the tariff and for the past eight years the tariff was not revised. The Union government recently banned the purchase of electricity from neighbouring states by Tamil Nadu and this had serious ramifications. Senior counsel Isaac Mohanlal, representing a paper mill, argued that the hearing by TNERC without a legal member is against the Supreme Court judgment. He submitted that the Commission had adjudicatory, advisory and regulatory powers. The Commission is one with multi-faceted functions and when the very composition of the Commission includes a legal member, it should function with all the members. It functions as one Commission. There are no separate Commissions for adjudicatory and non-adjudicatory, he submitted.
