Sub :  Compliance of Supreme Court  judgment  in appointments to  State Electricity Regulatory Commissions

Respected Chief Minister Sir,

AIPEF wants to bring to your kind notice that The State of Gujarat and others had filed Civil appeal no 14697 of 2015  before Hon’ble Supreme Court of India which was decided on 12 April 2018 .  Copy of the 84 page Judgment is attached at Annex 1 , wherein the operative portion is given in Para 114 on page 82-83 , which is quoted as under

Conclusion:

114. In view of our observations above, we conclude as under:

i. Section 84(2) of the said Act is only an enabling provision to appoint a High Court Judge as a Chairperson of the State Commission of the said Act and it is not mandatory to do so.

ii. It is mandatory that there should be a person of law as a Member of the Commission, which requires a person, who is, or has been holding a judicial office or is a person possessing professional qualifications with substantial experience in the practice of law, who has the requisite qualifications to have been appointed as a Judge of the High Court or a District

Judge.

iii. That in any adjudicatory function of the State

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Commission, it is mandatory for a member having the aforesaid legal expertise to be a member of the Bench.

iv. The challenge to the appointment of the Chairman and Member of the Tamil Nadu State Commission is rejected as also the suo moto proceedings carried out by the Commission.

v. Our judgment will apply prospectively and would not affect the orders already passed by the Commission from time

to time.

vi. In case there is no member from law as a member of the Commission as required aforesaid in para 2 of our conclusion, the next vacancy arising in every State Commission shall be filled in by a Member of law in terms of clause (ii) above.

2.   The Ministry of power recently appointed  Sh Arun Goel as Member CERC . This appointment was challenged by Er K K Agarwal (Retd CE  MPPMCL, Jabalpur)  through Contempt of Court petition  alleging that GoI has not complied with the Supreme Court judgment of 12-4-2018. Copy of draft petition  is placed at Annex 2 .

3.   The Contempt of court petition was admitted on 27 July 2020 , copy of order is placed at Annex 3. The operative portion of order is quoted as under

UPON hearing the counsel the Court made the following

O R D E R

We are prima facie satisfied that it appears to be a case of willful disobedience of the judgment of this Court.

Issue notice to the respondents No.1 for the present, returnable on 7th August, 2020.

Dasti service as well. Personal appearance of the alleged contenmor(s) is dispensed

with for the time being.

4.  It is concluded that the directions contained in Supreme Court judgment of 12 April 2018 are to be implemented in making appointments  to CERC  or SERC . It is suggested that the judgment of  12 Apr 2018 may be circulated by all State governments to the concerned offices to be noted and complied with while dealing with SERC appointments . The papers relating to Contempt of Court petition may similarly be circulated .

Thank you with regards.

Sincerely Yours

Shailendra Dubey

Chairman