The court addressed the validity of a writ petition concerning regulatory clearance within the electricity sector amidst prior judgments.

ORDER:

Heard Sri C.K.R. Associates, learned counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioner and Sri N.Sreedhar Reddy, learned Standing Counsel appearing on behalf of the respondents.

2. The petitioner approached the Court seeking prayer as under:

“…to issue a writ order or direction more particularly one in the nature of Writ of Mandamus:

a. Declaring the action of the 1^st Respondent in rejecting the application dt.25.09.2024 for Standing Clearance for grant of T-GNA for import of power through Bilateral or Collective IEX transaction for month of October, 2024, as un- authorized, as being bereft of any proper reasoning, without any foundation in fact based on an ex-facie false pretence and ulterior motive, illegal, arbitrary, without jurisdiction, besides being contrary to the orders of this Honourable Court in W.P.No.22000 of 2024, to the provisions under Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (Connectivity and General Network Access to the Inter-State Transmission System) Regulations, 2022 and the provisions of the Electricity Act, 2003 , and besides being violative of petitioner’s rights guaranteed under Articles 14 and 19(1)(g)

of the Constitution of India and]

b. Directing the 1^st Respondent to consider and give Standing Clearance for grant of T-GNA for the capacity of 18.0 MW through Collective IEX transaction pursuant to petitioner’s application dt 25.09.2024 for month of October, 2024, and subsequent months/periods;

c. and/or pass such other or further orders as this Hon’ble Court deems fit and proper in the interest of justice.”

3. This Court vide its order dated 04.10.2024, passed interim orders in favour of the petitioner and the relevant portion of the said order is extracted hereunder:

“Taking into consideration the submission put forth by the learned counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioner and duly considering the earlier order of this Court dated 06.09.2024 passed in I.A.No.1 of 2024 in W.P.No.24661 of 2024, respondent No.1 is directed to consider the request of the petitioner for issuance of standing clearance to the petitioner’s application dated 25.09.2024 for grant of T-GNA through Collective IEX transaction for import of power to the capacity of 180 MW for the month of October, 2024 within a period of Three ‘3’ working days from the date of receipt of the copy of the order.”

4. N.Sreedhar Reddy, learned Standing Counsel appearing on behalf of the respondents submits that in view of the interim orders of this Court dated 29.02.2024 passed in the present writ petition, no further orders are necessary and the writ itself has become infructuous.

5. The said submission made by the learned Standing Counsel appearing on behalf of the respondents is not disputed by the learned counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioner.

6. Bringing the said submission made by the learned Standing Counsel appearing on behalf of the respondents on record, the w rit petition is closed.

How ever, there shall be no order as to costs.

As a sequel, the miscellaneous petitions, if any, pending in the Writ Petition shall also stand closed.

___________________________ MRS. JUSTI CE SUREPALLI NANDA

29.01.2025 LPD