IN THE APPELLATE TRIBUNAL FOR ELECTRICITY AT NEW DELHI APPELLATE JURISDICTION APPEAL NO. 714 OF 2023 Dated: 2^nd February 2024 Present: Hon`ble Dr. Ashutosh Karnatak, Technical Member (P&NG)

Hon`ble Mr. Virender Bhat, Judicial Member Central U.P. Gas Limited Through its Senior Manager, 7^th Floor, UPSIDC Complex, A-1/4, Lakhanpur, Kanpur- 208024 U.P.

Mobile No. 07565908080 ......Appellant navinsingh@cugl.co.in Versus

1. Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited, Through its Executive Director, 4^th Floor, Gas & Renewables Dept., WZ CGM, Richardson & Cruddas Building, Sir JJ Road, Byculla, Mumbai- 400008 (Maharashtra)

022-23768192 dpgupta@hpcl.in, corphqo@hpcl.in .......Respondent 1

2. Petroleum & Natural Gas Regulatory Board, Through its Secretary, 1^st Floor, World Trade Centre Babar Road, New Delhi- 110001

011-2345-7700 Email:-contact@pngrb.gov.in ........Respondent 2 Counsel on record for the Appellant(s) : Shiv Kumar Pandey Anshal Rai Chandrashekhar A.C Counsel on record for the Respondent(s) : Sacchin Puri, Ld. Sr. Adv.

Matrugupta Mishra Swagatika Sahoo Ritika Singhal Vignesh Srinivasan Nipun Dave Ishita Thakur Sonakshi …. for Res. 1 Sumit Kishore Divyansh Hanu Tanuja Dhoulakhandi Mohit Budhiraja Sanskriti Bhardwaj Suyash Gaur Harshita Tomar Kartikey Joshi … for Res. 2

J U D G M E N T

PER HON’BLE DR. ASHUTOSH KARNATAK, TECHNICAL MEMBER (P&NG)

1.0 Appeal dated 11.05.2023, under Section 33 of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board Act, 2006, has been filed by the Appellant i.e. M/s Central U.P. Gas Limited before this Tribunal and has sought following relief:-

a) Quash the impugned order of PNGRB dated 17.02.2023 in Case No.

Legal/13/2022 not restraining the respondent No. 1 from the activity of laying carbon steel (CS) pipelines in the Bareilly geographical area authorized to the Appellant as mentioned in para 18.

b) Direct the Respondent No. 1 to remove the illegal pipeline laid by Respondent No. 1 c) Allow the appeal as prayed and pass any other order that is deemed fit and proper under the facts and circumstances of the case.

2.0 Appellant i.e. Central U. P. Gas Limited is a joint venture between India‟s two Maharatana companies, GAIL (India) Limited and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited and came into existence on 25^th February, 2005 as a City Gas Distribution Company for distribution and marketing of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) and distribution of Piped Natural Gas (PNG) to Domestic, Commercial and Industrial Sectors in the state of Uttar Pradesh. The Hon‟ble PNGRB vide its letter 22.04.2009 accepted the Central Government authorization for CGD network for Geographical Area (GA) of Bareilly.

3.0 Respondent No.1 i.e. M/s Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited is an entity authorized by the Board for development of City Gas Distribution (CGD) network in geographical area of Bareilly District (excluding area already authorized), Pilibhit and Rampur vide letter dated 29.03.2019.

4.0 Respondent No.2 i.e. Petroleum Natural Gas Regulatory Board herein referred to as “Board” constituted under the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board Act, 2006 having both administrative as well has quasi-

judicial function.

5.0 Case as per Appellant

5.1 It is a case of Appellant that during the field survey, it came to their notice that respondent no.1 is carrying out some unauthorized CGD activity of laying carbon steel (CS) pipelines in the Bareilly geographical area authorized to the Appellant. According to Appellant there are five sections of Respondent No.1‟s pipeline inside Appellant‟s authorized GA, whereas details of major sections are as follows:

a. Bareilly Bypass (approx. 16 Kms)- This section is wrongly claimed by HPCL as border of CUGL and HPCL GA. The fact is that this bypass is not the Border as it is newly built in CUGL‟s Bareilly authorization.

Infact the Border of HPCL GA is about 2 Kms away from this bypass.

b. Padarathpur Road (approx. 2.40 Kms).

c. Palpur Kamalpur Road / Parsauna Road (approx. 3.90 Kms).

d. From intersection of / Par