JUDGMENT

Sanjay Kishan Kaul, J. -

Facts:

The Punjab State Electricity Board ('PSEB') in the year 2009 conducted an international competitive bidding for selection of developer through tariff based bidding process for procurement of power on long term basis from a power station to be set up at Village Nalash, Rajpura, District Patiala, Punjab. This power station was envisaged as a Case-2 bid project (Case-2, Scenario-4) criteria by PSEB in terms of the competitive bidding guidelines issued by the Government of India as per Section 63 of the Electricity Act, 2003 (hereinafter referred to as the 'EA').

2. The significance of the aforesaid is that Part-7 of the EA, which contains the provisions for tariff, provides for tariff regulations to be determined by the appropriate commission as per guiding principles set out in the Section of the EA. The tariff is determined under Section 62 of the EA. However in a scenario such as the present case, the determination is as per the provisions of Section 63 of the EA, which reads as under:

"Section 63. Determination of tariff by bidding process.