Our Corporate Bureau

Mumbai, June 11: The Bombay High Court on Monday adjourned the hearing of a writ petition filed by Dabhol Power Company (DPC) challenging the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission’s (MERC) jurisdiction and its order restraining it (DPC) to reactivate escrow account and proceed on arbitration against the Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB) until Tuesday.

A division bench comprising justices AP Shah and SA Bobde adjourned the hearing until Tuesday for want of time.

The DPC counsel Atul Setalwad, accompanied by Supreme Court counsel and former finance minister P Chidambaram strongly appealed to the court that the MERC order issued on May 29 should be set aside as it has no exclusive or non-exclusive jurisdiction to adjudicate upon disputes and differences. He pleaded that under section 22 (2) (n) of the Electricity Regulatory Commission (ERC) Act, 1998, MERC has no powers to adjudicate upon a dispute or difference between a licensee and utility if the relevant licensee and utility have entered into an arbitration agreement providing for the resolution of any such dispute or difference.

Mr Setalwad argued that MERC has simply been empowered to adjudicate and refer the matter to arbitration. MERC must refer the matter to arbitration in accordance with the provisions of the arbitration agreement reached between DPC and MSEB.

Further, Mr Setalwad said that the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (Cerc) has been empowered to adjudicate and arbitrate disputes of the relevant class or type. In contrast, section 22(2) (n) of the ERC Act, 1998 does not empower any state electricity commission in effect to arbitrate upon disputes or the relevant class or type. He reiterated that section 22 (2) (n) of the ERC Act, 1998 has merely empowered MERC to refer the relevant dispute or difference to arbitration.

Mr Setalwad pointed out that the DPC has serious doubts over fair and proper hearing before MERC which has no lawyer as its member.