Supreme Court Declares That Courts Cannot Interfere In Power Tariffs Determined By Expert Bodies

Introduction

Once an expert body has determined specific tariffs for power, it is not open to courts to interfere ordinarily in such matters, where the determination by such expert body does not suffer from any illegality or infirmity. This position was recently set out by the Supreme Court in Transmission Corporation of Andhra Pradesh Ltd. v. M/s Rain Calcining Ltd. & Ors.¹

Facts

On 24.3.2001, the Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (Commission) set up under the Andhra Pradesh Electricity Reforms Act, 1988 (Reforms Act) decided to consider the issue relating to determination of wheeling charges and directed Transmission Corporation of Andhra Pradesh Ltd. (APTRANSCO) to file necessary applications and information in this regard. Thereafter, the Commission, by order dated 24.03.2002 (Commission Order), determined that the wheeling charges for the year 2002-2003 effective from 1.4.2002 would be 50 paise per Kwh for energy transmitted through its