Pay up power dues by 15 July, SC tells Delhi discom BYPL

The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Delhi power distributor BSES Yamuna Power Ltd (BYPL), majority-owned by Anil Ambani's Reliance Infrastructure, to clear dues of Rs257 crore owed to state generation and transmission companies by 15 July.

This amount includes the subsidy amount of Rs96 crore paid by the government to be adjusted in the total dues. As a result, the company will need to pay only Rs161 crore.

A bench of Chief Justice R M Lodha and Justices Madan Lokur and Kurian Joseph, after hearing senior counsel K V Viswanathan for BYPL, said the payment of dues must be as per its own admitted statement submitted to the court in May.

The Bench also said the company should continue to pay the recurring monthly demand to power generating and transmitting companies on the same basis of the figure indicated in its order of 6 May.

Justice Lodha said, ''We are directing you only to pay dues for this year. Power generation and transmission companies are not 'baniya' [small grocery] shops. You must clear all dues since January 2014 if you want electricity. We will deal with other issues relating to the recovery of past dues separately. In the meantime, you sit with them [the parties involved, including the power regulatory commission] and try to resolve the differences.''

As far as payment by BSES Rajdhani Power is concerned, the bench said, ''We are told that 94 per cent of the outstanding dues have been paid.''

The bench posted the matter for further hearing after two months and said all outstanding issues would be taken up later.