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Informist, Monday, Mar. 16, 2026

 

NEW DELHI – Rejecting a public interest litigation filed by an advocate, Ravi Sharma, the Delhi High Court has upheld the Solar Energy Corp. of India Ltd.'s move to reallocate 2.33 gigawatt of power generating capacity from Azure Power India Pvt. Ltd. to Adani Green Energy Ltd. The so-called increase of capacity and allocation of Azure Power's capacity to Adani Green may at first appear an irregularity, but the same cannot be examined at the instance of the petitioner, who has no axe to grind so far as bidding process or competitive bidding is concerned, said the court.

 

Such grievance, if at all is to be raised, can be raised by a bidder who had taken part in the bidding process, said the court. The loss, if any, has been caused to the competitive bidder or the prospective bidder, for whom the petitioner cannot be allowed to voice and litigate, said the court. "We are not inclined to enter into the arena of investigation and fishing and roving enquiry, simply because the petitioner smells some irregularity in the process," said a bench of Justice Dinesh Mehta and Vinod Kumar. 

 

Unless a petitioner demonstrates that any loss or injury has been caused to the public or to public exchequer, the courts should not interfere; that too, at the instance of a so-called public interest litigant, said the bench. An already finalised process and a contract which was granted two years ago, cannot be interfered with or unsettled simply because there have been some irregularities, as alleged, said the court.

 

The petitioner has not been able to show the loss or injury to the public or public exchequer, said the court. The price of power per unit, at which the Solar Energy Corp. will purchase the power, has been reduced after the reallocation of the capacity, said the court. Hence, it cannot be said that the public exchequer has been made to suffer, it said. "According to us, the jury trial demanded by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which the petitioner has placed before us (with a contention that it is a jury report), does not even indicate any loss to public or public exchequer," said the court.

 

The petitioner had argued that grave irregularities had been committed in the competitive bidding process for solar power projects in India which resulted in loss to the public exchequer. The reallocation of power generating capacity to Adani Green was illegal and contrary to norms and the same has been done in an improper manner, said the petitioner. Sharma argued that these illegalities have been committed to favour Adani Green and Azure Power because of their clout and corrupt measures which were adopted by them which can be discerned from the indictment issued by the US District Court, Eastern District Of New York, and the jury report.

 

The transferred capacity was a part of the 12,000 megawatt solar tender floated by Solar Energy Corp. in 2019, which was now under scrutiny for bribery as alleged by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the capital market regulator in the US. The commission had alleged that the capacity transfer was in lieu of bribery payments made by the Adanis on Azure's behalf as part of the $265 million bribery involving government officials. Adani Group had denied these allegations as baseless.

 

Monday, the shares of Adani Green Energy ended 0.7% higher at INR 866.95 on the National Stock Exchange.  End

 

US$1 = INR 92.42

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

 

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