Devendra Fadnavis questions APTEL fairness, Tushar Mehta urges CJI review
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis is questioning the fairness of the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity (APTEL), saying it sides with private power companies.
This all came up after APTEL dismissed a request by the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission to remit the matter back for reconsideration in a case involving JSW Energy Ltd.
Now, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta wants India's chief justice to take a closer look at how APTEL is handling things.
APTEL rejects MERC remit request
It started with a 2022 government order telling imported coal-based power plants to run at full capacity.
Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC), the state regulator, said this rule did not apply to JSW Energy's local plant and kept existing rates.
When Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Co challenged this, MERC noticed it might have made a jurisdiction mistake and asked APTEL to remit the matter back for reconsideration, but APTEL shot it down, saying APTEL had described the Commission's request for reconsideration of the matter as "intriguing" and had insinuated that the same was an attempt to aid MSEDC in forum shopping.
Now there are calls for more oversight on how these decisions are made.