O R D E R

The writ petition is filed praying to issue a Writ of Mandamus directing the Respondents to forthwith and in a time bound manner, release the dues under the respective Power Purchase Agreements and Open Access Agreement for sale to TANGEDCO dated 07.10.2014 entered into between the petitioner and the Respondents without in any manner deducting any penalties for short supply, so long as the Respondents do not make full payments within the due date against the invoices raised for supply of electricity from time to time and pay interest on the delayed payments at the contractual rate for the period of delay.

2. The petitioner is a Company operating two Group owned captive gas based power plants in the State of Tamil Nadu with a combined installed capacity of 28 MW. The petitioner supplied power under a wheeling agreement to 8 Group Captive consumers. After meeting its internal requirements, the petitioner had surplus power of 10 MW depending on availability of machine, gas etc., 3. The State of Tamil Nadu faced with acute shortage of power, entered into Power Purchase Agreements (hereinafter referred to as "PPA") from time to time titled “Open Access Agreement for Sale” with generators such as the petitioner herein. The petitioner entered into a number of agreements commencing with the PPA dated 19.07.2013 until 17.10.2014. The Petitioner raised invoices in terms of the contractual clauses. However, the Respondent namely TANGEDCO has failed to comply with its part of the contractual obligation of making payments on time. The following statement in the affidavit is relevant and thus extracted below:-

S.No .	Month	Agreement Quantum Supply in Units (Minimum 8.5 MW)	Actual Supply Quantum in Units	Short fall Supply in Units claimed by TANGED CO	Actual Supply Units Amount @ Rs.5.50/ Unit	Less Short fall supply penalty amount @ Rs.1.10/- per unit	Less System and Scheduling operating Charges Rs.2000/- per day
1	Oct-14	6324000	3280000	3044000	18040000	3348400	62000
2	Nov-14	6120000	2300000	3820000	12650000	4202000	60000
3	Dec-14	6324000	2926000	3398000	16093000	3737800	62000
4	Jan-15	6324000	1120000	5204000	6160000	5724400	62000
5	Feb-15	5712000	1800000	3912000	9900000	4303200	56000

S.No .	Month	Agreement Quantum Supply in Units (Minimum 8.5 MW)	Actual Supply Quantum in Units	Short fall Supply in Units claimed by TANGED CO	Actual Supply Units Amount @ Rs.5.50/ Unit	Less Short fall supply penalty amount @ Rs.1.10/- per unit	Less System and Scheduling operating Charges Rs.2000/- per day
	Total	30804000	11426000	19378000	62843000	21315800	302000

The above statement would show that there has been substantial delay in making the contractually agreed payments and even when payments are made belatedly they were made without interest contrary to the judgment of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of TANGEDCO vs. PPN Power Generating Company Private Limited reported in (2014) 11 SCC 53.

5. The petitioner being a gas based generating station was dependent upon supply of gas by GAIL and ONGC. Owing to the default in payments by TANGEDCO to the petitioner, the petitioner was unable to make the payments to GAIL and ONGC within the time lines stipulated under the contract with GAIL and ONGC which is evident from the correspondence exchanged between the petitioner and GAIL and Petitioner and ONGC. The delay/ default by the Respondentss in making the payment and refusal to pay interest has adversely impacted the financial position of the petitioner who had to make payments to its Bankers, financial institutions apart from the payment to be made to GAIL/ONGC to procure gas.

6. While so, the Government of Tamil Nadu issued G.O.Ms.No.10 Energy Department dated 27.02.2009 under Section 11 of the Electricity Act, 2003, whereby all power generating units in Tamil Nadu shall operate and maintain generating stations to the maximum capacity and pla

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