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HC to hear 10 PILs against DPC on February 6

The Bombay high court, on February 6, will hear 10 public interest litigations challenging the legality of the power purchase agreement between the Dabhol Power Company and the Maharashtra State Electricity Board.

Also being challenged in the litigations are the high tariff charged by DPC and guarantees provided by the government to the project.

The petitions will be heard by Justices Ajit Shah and Vijaya Tahilramani. Four PILs have been filed in Mumbai, while six others before the Nagpur bench of the Bombay high court. They have been clubbed together as issues raised therein are common.

The PILs in Nagpur have been filed by Nagpur Gram Panchayat, Advocate G C Singh, P M Deshpande and others.

In Mumbai, one PIL has been filed by social activists P B Sawant and Pradyuman Kaul who challenged the PPA on the ground that it did not contain provision of fixation of power tariff. This, they argued, violated a government notification issued on August 22, 1994.

Kaul, a member of Enron Virodhi Andolan, has contended that the PPA also did not mention the project cost and this too violated the government notification.

In the notification on power tariff, the plant's capacity was mentioned as 6,000 kilowatts per year but in fact the base load capacity of DPC's plant was 8672 kilowatts per year. Thus, DPC was allowed to generate more power and thereby make more profit.

Another petition, also filed by Sawant and Kaul, challenges the tariff structure on the basis of which DPC sold power to MSEB.

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