New Delhi: Contrary to the claims of three private discoms, the Delhi government on Monday told the high court that these firms have not been cooperating with the Comptroller and Auditor General in auditing of their accounts.
"None of the discoms has so far given all the requisite information/data sought by the CAG... Today, the position is not different from what it was three months before," Additional Solicitor General Siddharth Luthra, appearing for Delhi government, told a bench a headed by Chief Justice G Rohini.
"Serious prejudice has been caused to power distribution company as it has been cooperating with the CAG," the counsel for Tata Power Delhi Distribution Limited (TPDDL) said while refuting the claims of the government and the CAG. Gaurang Kanth, counsel for CAG, has been alleging that the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group firms, BSES Rajdhani Power Ltd and BSES Yamuna Power Ltd have not been supplying the requisite information and hence, the auditing has not led anywhere.
He also told the bench, also comprising Justice RS Endlaw, that the CAG, as asked by the court, would be filing an application in this regard. During the brief hearing, the ASG informed the court that according to a letter by Deputy Secretary, Power, government of NCTD, out of 190 requisitions raised by the CAG team to TPDDL, only 112 have been responded.
Meanwhile, Sandeep Sethi, appearing for BSES firms, said that the CAG had no jurisdiction to undertake audit of the private discoms. "Moreover, we are fully cooperating with the auditing process as per orders of the court. Till date we have not received any document that we are not complying with the audit," he said.
The bench is hearing a batch of petitions including three appeals filed by TPDDL and Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group firms, BSES Rajdhani Power Ltd and BSES Yamuna Power Ltd.
The discoms moved the larger bench of the court against its single judge's order of January 24 refusing to stall their CAG audit and asking them to cooperate with the top auditor by furnishing the details sought. Besides these pleas, the court is also hearing a PIL filed by NGO United RWAs Joint Action (URJA), seeking CAG audit of the discoms' accounts.
Earlier, the court had asked the three discoms to "fully cooperate with the Comptroller and Auditor General in the audit process". The single judge bench, which did not stay the CAG audit, however, had said that the report of the audit will not be released without the court's permission.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the NGO, had said that a DERC audit of a discom had revealed huge amount of fudging of accounts and the NGO had also sought action against those involved. The three private firms came into being in 2002 when the then Delhi government decided to privatise power distribution.
Delhi discoms are a 51:49 per cent joint venture between the private companies and the Delhi government. Tata Power, in a release, also refuted the plea of non-cooperation in the auditing process and said, "TPDDL is committed to extend full cooperation to the CAG and continues to respond to any query by the Auditor.
"In fact, TPDDL is putting in extensive man-hours to cater to the queries raised by the auditors."
In another statement, BSES Discom said, that it has been fully cooperating in the audit process and would continue to do so.
"We have already submitted complete information on 306 queries, spread over 20,000 pages. Auditors have also been provided viewing rights on our entire data base. "We reiterate that BSES discoms are having cordial and regular meetings with the auditors and there is a continuous flow of information to them. As stated earlier, data compilation relating to a long period is a time taking process so the information is being supplied progressively," the statement quoted a BSES spokesperson as saying.
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