By bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, April 21, 2015 :

In a major setback to Anil Ambani controlled distribution companies (Discoms) in Odisha, the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity (ATE) on Tuesday refused to grant any mandatory interim relief and restore status-quo on the issue of revocation of its power distribution license by Odisha Electricity Regulatory Commission.
ATE chairperson Justice Ranjana P. Desai and Technical Member, Rakesh Nath dismissed the interim application of the Discoms saying, “it is not possible for us to grant any mandatory interim relief to the Appellants and restore status-quo ante. The interim application is therefore, dismissed. We make it clear, however, that we have not expressed any opinion on the merits of the case”.

Kapil Sibal, the senior counsel appearing for the Discoms even submitted before the ATE that if this court is not inclined to restore status-quo ante, the officers of the Appellants may be permitted to work under the directions of the Administrator.

The Court did not accept the suggestions saying, “We are also of the opinion that in the circumstances of the case such an arrangement is not desirable and also not feasible”, the ATE order said.

Discoms had moved the ATE last month contesting the March 4 order of OERC to revoke the licenses of
of three Reliance Infra companies- North Eastern Electricity Supply Company of Odisha Ltd (Nesco), Western Electricity Supply Company of Odisha Ltd (Wesco) and Southern Electricity Supply Company of Odisha Ltd (Southco) on grounds of non-satisfactory performance, failure to contain steep aggregate technical & commercial (AT&C) losses and consistent defaults in payment of bulk power supply price.
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It also disbanded the Central Services Office (CSO), umbrella organisation of Reliance Infra for power distribution operation in the state.