The main legal point established in the judgment is the court's affirmation of the relief in favor of the petitioner regarding the change in law, the calculation of the amount due, and the liability of the respondents for contempt for non-compliance with the court's order.

ORDER

1. This Contempt Petition has been filed by Adani Power Rajasthan Limited alleging non-compliance of judgment of this Court dated 31.08.2020, against which the Review Petition No.1811-1812 of 2020 has also been dismissed on 02.03.2021.

2. In short, the dispute in the Civil Appeal was with regard to the certain additional payments which the petitioner claims that it was entitled to because of change in law. Very briefly stated, the facts are that the petitioner was to supply electricity to the respondent-Discoms, which was to be generated by the petitioner- company, for which, as per the agreement, the respondents was to supply domestic coal (linkage coal). However, undisputedly, the domestic coal was not provided to the petitioner. Since the petitioner- company was, as per the agreement, required to supply uninterrupted power, it had to purchase imported coal (linkage coal) at a much higher cost. A claim for loss due to non supply of domestic coal because of which petitioner had to purchase imported coal was raised by the petitioner before the Rajasthan Electricity Regulatory Commission (for short 'RERC'), which vide its Order dated 17.05.2018 held that the petitioner would be entitle to the relief of change in law, which was held to be the difference of landed cost of alternate coal/imported coal as certified by auditor and landed cost of domestic linkage coal.

3. In the aforesaid facts, the only dispute for the purpose of calculation of loss due to change in law was the actual landed cost of alternate coal minus landed cost of domestic linkage coal.

4. After the RERC decided the said dispute, the matter was challenged before the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity (for short 'APTEL'), which dismissed the appeal of the respondents vide its judgment dated 14.09.2019 and upheld the order of the RERC. The respondents then challenged the said Order before this Court, and a three Judge Bench of this Court also dismissed the appeal and confirmed the relief in favour of the petitioner regarding the change in law i.e. the petitioner was to be paid the difference between the actual landed cost of alternate coal/imported coal minus the actual landed cost of domestic linkage coal. This Court, by its judgment dated 31.08.2020, had limited the relief to the extent that the respondent-Discoms were to pay interest/late payment surcharge only as per the applicable SBAR for the relevant years, which should not exceed 9% with annual compounding.

4. It is noteworthy that after the Order was passed by RERC, while the matter was pending before the APTEL, an interim order was passed by APTEL that pending final decision of the appeal, the Discoms shall pay 70% of the compensation claimed/demanded by the petitioner, as provisional compensation, within two weeks. The said interim order of APTEL was challenged before this Court, which in turn, by an order dated 29.10.2018, directed that instead of 70% of the compensation claimed/demanded by the petitioner, only 50% be paid. It was also noted in the said Order that the total claim was stated to be in the region of about Rs.5,000 crores. Pursuant thereto, out of the claim of the petitioner, which was for an amount of Rs.5344.75 crores upto the relevant point of time, the petitioner was paid Rs.2426.81 crores. It is noteworthy that the order of RERC was upheld by APTEL, which in fact means that the claim of the petitioner was accepted. As per the same calculation, which was for an amount of Rs. 5344.75 crores up to March, 2021, a further claim of Rs.130.69 crores has been raised for the period of April to November, 2021. As such, according to the petitioner, the total sum due comes to Rs.5344.75 crores + Rs.130.69 crores = Rs.5475.44 crores. After deducting the amount of Rs.2426.81 crores paid under the interim order, the amount due to be paid was Rs.3048.63 crores. According to the petitioner, since the claim made by the petitioner, in terms of RERC Order, was upheld by the APTEL, thereafter also uphe