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APL No. 714/2023

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

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APL No. 714/2023

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.

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APL No. 714/2023

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

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APL No. 714/2023

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 by