COURT-1 IN THE APPELLATE TRIBUNAL FOR ELECTRICITY (Appellate Jurisdiction)

IA No. 1724 OF 2023 IN APL No. 168 OF 2023, IA No. 1722 OF 2023 IN APL No. 171 OF 2023 &

APL No. 92 OF 2023 Dated: 28^th May, 2024 Present : Hon`ble Mr. Justice Ramesh Ranganathan, Chairperson Hon`ble Ms. Seema Gupta, Technical Member(Electricity)

In the matter of:

IA No. 1724 OF 2023 IN APL No. 168 OF 2023 &

Punjab State Power Corporation Limited .... Appellant(s)

Versus Central Electricity Regulatory Commission &

.... Respondent(s)

Ors.

Counsel on record for the Appellant(s) : Poorva Saigal Shubham Arya Pallavi Saigal Ravi Nair Reeha Singh Shikha Sood Anumeha Smiti for App. 1 Counsel on record for the Respondent(s) : for Res. 1 Hemant Sahai Nitish Gupta Molshree Bhatnagar Shubhi Sharma Nipun Sharma Parichita Chowdhury Rishabh Sehgal Nimesh Jha Deepak Thakur Shubham Singh Varnika Tyagi Kamya Sharma Divyansh Kasana Adarsh Kumar Bhardwaj Samprati Singh for Res. 2 Samir Malik Nikita Choukse Rahul Sinha Akash Lamba Ekssha Kashyap for Res. 4 IA No. 1722 OF 2023 in APL No. 171 OF 2023 Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam Ltd. & Anr. .... Appellant(s)

Versus Central Electricity Regulatory Commission &

.... Respondent(s)

Ors.

Counsel on record for the Appellant(s) : Poorva Saigal Shubham Arya Pallavi Saigal Ravi Nair Shikha Sood Reeha Singh Anumeha Smiti for App. 1 Poorva Saigal Shubham Arya Pallavi Saigal Ravi Nair Shikha Sood Reeha Singh Anumeha Smiti for App. 2 Counsel on record for the Respondent(s) : for Res. 1 Hemant Sahai Nitish Gupta Molshree Bhatnagar Shubhi Sharma Nipun Sharma Parichita Chowdhury Rishabh Sehgal Nimesh Jha Deepak Thakur Shubham Singh Varnika Tyagi Kamya Sharma Divyansh Kasana Adarsh Kumar Bhardwaj Samprati Singh for Res. 2 Samir Malik Nikita Choukse Rahul Sinha Akash Lamba Ekssha Kashyap for Res. 4 APL No. 92 OF 2023 Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Limited .... Appellant(s)

Versus Central Electricity Regulatory Commission &

.... Respondent(s)

Ors.

Counsel on record for the Appellant(s) : Anand K. Ganesan Swapna Seshadri Srishti Khindaria Ashabari Basu Thakur for App. 1 Counsel on record for the Respondent(s) : for Res. 1 Hemant Sahai Nitish Gupta Molshree Bhatnagar Shubhi Sharma Nipun Sharma Parichita Chowdhury Rishabh Sehgal Nimesh Jha Deepak Thakur Shubham Singh Varnika Tyagi Kamya Sharma Divyansh Kasana Adarsh Kumar Bhardwaj for Res. 2 Samir Malik Nikita Choukse Rahul Sinha Akash Lamba Ekssha Kashyap for Res. 4

ORDER

IA No. 1724 of 2023 and 1722 of 2023 are filed by the second Respondent in Appeal Nos. 168 and 171 of 2023, seeking modification of the earlier interim order passed by this Tribunal on 18.04.2023 to the extent the Applicant-Second Respondent seeks a direction to the Appellant to pay them the outstanding 50% dues. While the IA filed by the applicant-second Respondent.is silent in this regard, Mr. P. Chidambaram, Learned Senior Counsel appearing on their behalf, would submit that the Appellant be directed to pay the balance 50% of the outstanding dues to the applicant-second respondent on their furnishing an unconditional bank guarantee for a like sum; and for the said bank guarantee to be kept alive during the pendency of the appeal.

I. RELEVANT FACTS:

Before taking note of the rival submissions, it is necessary to refer to the facts, of the present case, to the extent relevant. A Power Purchase Agreement was entered into between PSPCL and the applicant–2^nd Respondent on 22.04.2017. The applicant started declaring less availability of power to PSPCL, on account of financial distress, from April 2021 onwards. On 05.05.2022, the Ministry of Power, Government of India issued an order under Section 11(1) of the Electricity Act. Less than a week thereafter, the applicant filed Petition No. 128/MP/2022 before the CERC, under Section 11(2) of the Electricity Act, seeking interim and final relief with respect to the alleged adverse financial consequences they had suffered as a result of the Section 11(1) Order. In this Petition, the applicant-second respondent