The Supreme Court remitted the disputes over the payment of dues between Tata Power Ltd and BSES Ltd to the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission and asked it to decide the issues expeditiously, preferably within three months.

The court found that the commission had the power to decide the questions arising in the disputes.

Power conflict

The Supreme Court found that the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission had the power to decide the questions arising in the disputes According to the earlier HC order, the Ambani-controlled BSES and Tata Power would have to pay 50 per cent each out of the total standby charges levied by the MSEB The WTO meet comes ahead of the APEC summit, the first major gathering of world leaders after the collapse of the Cancun talks

The Supreme Court bench, comprising Justice R C Lahoti and Justice G P Mathur, in the meantime, maintained the interim orders passed by the Bombay high court earlier.

According to the order of the high court, the Ambani-controlled BSES and Tata Power would have to pay 50 per cent each out of the total standby charges levied by the Maharashtra State Electricity Board.

Tata Power has been the central agency, which buys standby power from the MSEB. Then it routes it to BSES and BEST if they have a sudden shortage.

When BSES commissioned the Dhahanu power station seven years ago, it reduced its purchases from Tata Power, which in turn reduced its standby quota from MSEB. The latter then raised its charges to make up its losses.

Tata Power, in turn, hiked its monthly bill to BSES from Rs 3.5 crore (Rs 35 million) to Rs 15 crore (Rs 150 million). BSES stuck to the earlier figure, disputing the revision.

According to Tata Power, it had kept about 275 MW as standby power for

BSES and it has been used many times in the past few years. BSES then took the dispute to the high court.

The High Court, on June 3 this year, ruled that BSES and Tata should share the total standby charges levied by MSEB since January.

It also ordered that BSES would have to pay 80 per cent of the Rs 380 crore (Rs 3.8 billion) arrears to MSEB. Tata Power would have to pay the balance.

The high court was also of the opinion that these matters should be handled by the MERC in future. Both parties appealed to the Supreme Court.

It dismissed the appeals, affirming the view that disputes of this nature should be settled by the MERC.