Himachal govt gets surprise from court
The Himachal Pradesh High Court passed an important order and attached Himachal Bhawan located in Delhi Mandi House. These High Court orders have been issued in the case related to non-refund of money by the power company. The court has also directed the Principal Secretary, Electricity Department to conduct a fact-finding inquiry in this matter, in order to ascertain the liability of those officials whose negligence led to such a situation.
Himachal High Court bench Ajay Mohan Goel passed these orders for non-payment of initial premium of Rs 64 million to Seli Hydro Company. The court also ordered the government to pay the initial premium to the company along with seven per cent interest from the date of filing of the petition.
What did CM Sukhwinder say about the court order?
At the same time, Chief Minister Sukhwinder Singh also reacted to the High Court orders linking Himachal Bhawan to the Shaili Hydroelectric Project. He said he has not yet read the entire order. He said that in Himachal, initial premiums are collected under a policy and a new energy policy was adopted in the state in 2006. By virtue of this, the amount of the initial premium has been set. An upfront premium must now be paid whether or not an energy project is built.
He said that decisions that are submitted to arbitration are also a cause for concern. The law is being ignored and our government went to the High Court against it. The amount of Rs 64 crore that was to be deposited under arbitration will be studied now that the High Court orders have come in this regard.
Do you know what the issue of the energy project is?
The 400 MW Seli hydroelectric project would be built on the Chenab river in Lahaul-Spiti district of Himachal Pradesh. In this project too, earlier in the arbitration, the state government had received an order to return the initial money of Rs 64 million deposited by the company with 7% interest, but the Himachal Pradesh government ignored this court order. After which this amount including interest has now reached Rs 150 crore. The next hearing in the case will be December 6.
Company awarded 320 MW project
The power project was to be set up in Lahaul Spiti. At that time, the government had entrusted BRO with the task of constructing the road to implement the project. As per the agreement, the government was to provide basic facilities to the company so that it could start work on the project on time, but this did not happen. The company filed a writ petition before the High Court in 2017. The company’s advocate told the court that due to lack of facilities to set up the project, the company had to close it and return it to the government.
The government confiscated the initial bonus on the whole thing. After hearing both sides, the court ordered the government to pay an initial premium of Rs 64 million to the mobile phone company. However, the government has filed an LPA against the court’s decision.
