JUDGMENT :

B.R. GAVAI, J.

1. The appellants challenge the judgment and order passed by the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity, New Delhi (hereinafter referred to as “APTEL”) dated 3rd November 2020, thereby dismissing the appeal filed by them and maintaining the judgment and order dated 31st May 2018 passed by the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (“CERC” for short) in Petition No. 97/MP/2017.

2. The facts, in brief, giving rise to the present appeal are as under.

3. Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam Ltd. and Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Haryana Utilities”/“Appellants”) are distribution licensees undertaking the distribution and retail supply of electricity to consumers in the State of Haryana. Haryana Utilities had entered into two Power Purchase Agreements (“PPAs” for short) on 7th August 2008 with Adani Power Mundra Limited (hereinafter referred to as “AP(M)L”) for procurement of contracted capacity of 1424 MW from generating units 7, 8 and 9 established by AP(M)L at Mundra in the State of Gujarat.

4. The PPAs were entered into pursuant to a tariff based Competitive Bidding Process initiated by the Haryana Utilities under the provisions