Hon'ble Mahesh Chandra Tripathi,J.

Hon'ble Prashant Kumar,J.

(Delivered by Prashant Kumar, J.)

1. Heard Sri Ankush Tandon, learned counsel for the petitioner and Sri M.C. Chaturvedi, learned Senior Advocate assisted by Sri Alok Mishra, learned counsel for respondent nos.3 and 4.

2. The petitioner is public sector undertaking, working under the aegis of Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Government of India.

The preliminary business of the petitioner is to refine crude oil, market petroleum and petroleum products. To refine the crude oil, the petitioner has set up a refinery in Mathura. Though the petitioner had a Captive Power Plant, but it was not able to generate required amount of electrical energy, so the petitioner entered into an agreement on 30.11.1999 (hereinafter referred to as the ‘Principal Agreement’) with U.P. Power Corporation Limited (hereinafter referred to as ‘UPPCL’), to provide a facility which is commonly known as “Parallel Operating System”. The relevant clauses of the ‘Principal Agreement’ are reproduced hereunder:-

“Clause 5 It has been agreed by the consumer that during the continuance of this agreement in addition to the minimum c