New Delhi– The Supreme Court on Thursday asked Adani Power Ltd to reply, within three weeks, on the Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Ltd’s (GUVNL) curative plea, challenging the 2019 apex court verdict upholding the firm’s termination of a pact with the PSU.
Attorney General K.K. Venugopal appeared for the GUVL in the curative petition before the 5-judge bench headed by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana and comprising Justices U.U. Lalit, D.Y. Chandrachud, B.R. Gavai and Surya Kant.
In a rare open court hearing on a curative petition in a commercial dispute, the bench took note of the submissions of senior advocates Harish Salve and Mukul Rohatgi, representing Adani Power (Mundra), seeking some time to file response. Venugopal and senior advocate C.A. Sundaram, who was also representing the GUVNL, said they would then like to put their rejoinder.
The bench ordered: “The respondent sought time to file a reply to the petition. Three weeks’ time given for filing the reply and two weeks thereafter for filing the rejoinder (by GUVNL).”
The top court has scheduled the matter for further hearing on November 17.
Earlier this month, the top court had decided to hear the GUVNL’s curative petition.
A three-judge bench, in its July 2019 judgment, had held that Adani Power was justified in terminating the PPA, as it could not get coal supply on time from the Naini block of Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation (GMDC). Adani terminated the pact claiming that the supply of electricity was conditional to the coal supply.
The top court had ordered the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) to determine compensatory tariff for the power supplied by Adani Power to the state PSU.
In 2007, Adani Power (Mundra) Ltd had signed a PPA with GUVNL to supply 1,000 MW power from its project located in Chhattisgarh’s Korba. (IANS)
