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Informist, Monday, Aug. 17, 2026

 

--SC rejects Karnataka discoms plea to stay Adani Power INR-10.06-bln invoice 

 

NEW DELHI –The Supreme Court Monday rejected a plea by a batch of discoms in Karnataka seeking to stay Adani Power Ltd.'s INR-10.06-billion invoice uploaded on the (Payment Ratification and Analysis in Power Procurement for Bringing Transparency in Invoicing of Generators portal. "We are not inclined to interfere with the APTEL (Appellate Tribunal for Electricity) order," said the Bench of Justice P.S. Narasimha and Justice Alok Aradhe, adding that the court's observations will not have any effect on the appellate tribunal's final order. The appellate tribunal should take up the matter as early as possible and decide the same within three months, said the top court. 

 

The portal enables suppliers to update invoice details and discoms to update payment information under the Electricity (Late Payment Surcharge and Related Matters) Rules, 2022, helping track invoices and payments across India. 

 

The case has its genesis from the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission in 2023 holding Karnataka discoms liable to pay the carrying cost on the differential amounts arising out of the appellate tribunal commission order, along with late payment surcharge on the carrying cost, in terms of the applicable tariff regulations. The payment had to be made in six installments, failing which Adani would be entitled for late payment surcharge as per the applicable tariff regulations. Thereafter, Adani Power filed a petition before the commission alleging non-compliance of the previous order and claiming that the discoms were liable to pay a purported outstanding of INR 5.66 billion, which includes INR 2.03 billion towards carrying cost and INR 3.63 billion towards interest on carrying cost. 

 

The petitioners argued that Adani Power's case was filed without any basis, despite the fact that after reconciliation, the Karnataka discoms had already paid the entire sum of INR 4.20 billion to Adani Power, including INR 2.16 towards carrying cost, in six installments, in compliance with the commission order. Hence, there was no question of the Karnataka discoms being liable to pay any further carrying cost or late payment surcharge, said the petitioners. The commission, however, in January, erroneously directed the discoms to pay the amount claimed by Adani Power in 45 days, without appreciating the factual aspects or the legal position that late payment surcharge becomes payable only after an invoice is raised and there is a default in payment as per the timelines stipulated in their order.  

 

Thereafter, Adani Power raised invoices demanding a total sum of INR 10.06 billion. These wrongful invoices were uploaded on the portal, even though the time for payment had not lapsed. While the Karnataka High Court had initially granted an ex parte stay of Adani Power's invoice, it lifted the bar later. 

 

The appellate tribunal has completely misdirected itself and declined to grant any interim relief in the statutory appeal on the ground that it was not inclined to take a contrary view to the high court, said the petitioners. This was done without appreciating that the scope of the two proceedings in the high court and the appellate tribunal were completely different, said the petitioners. Therefore, the petitioners were left with no choice but to pay, without prejudice and under protest, the entire amount of INR 10.06 billion as demanded by Adani Power to avoid any adverse impact of interruption in power supply to their consumers, it said. This amount has been diverted from other essential commitments of purchase of additional power and has left the discoms in severe financial distress, it said. The Karnataka discoms will struggle to pay other legitimate expenses unless the same is reversed, it said.  

 

At 1128 IST, the shares of Adani Power Ltd. were down 1.2% at INR 202.79 on the National Stock Exchange.  End

 

IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Deepshikha Bhardwaj

 

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