Adani Power moves Supreme Court seeking ₹280 crore refund from Himachal Pradesh

The Supreme Court on Monday sought the response of the Himachal Pradesh government to a plea filed by Adani Power seeking refund of ₹280 crore allegedly owed to it by the State government. [M/S Adani Power Limited v State of Himachal Pradesh].A Bench of Justices MM Sundresh and Aravind Kumar issued notice to the Himachal Pradesh government..The Court was hearing an appeal filed against a July 18 judgment of a Division Bench of the Himachal Pradesh High Court which had ruled against Adani.A single-judge of the High Court had initially directed the State government to refund the amount of ₹280 crore to Adani Power in a matter related to two hydro-electric projects.This order was set aside by a Division Bench of Justices Vivek Singh Thakur and Bipin Chander Negi.The Division Bench held that since Brakel Corporation, which had been the highest bidder for the projects, had won the award due to misrepresentation and suppression, it or anyone on its behalf could not have claimed the refund.This led to the instant appeal before the apex court, filed through advocate Anshuman Srivastava..In 2006, Brakel Corporation had won the bid for implementation of the power projects but it failed to deposit the up-front premium on time. Brakel later paid the amount with interest on investment from Adani Power after it transferred 49 percent equity to the company.However, the issues between Brakel and the government continued even after that. Reliance Infrastructure, which had offered to match the bid of Brakel, also joined the fight against government’s decision to not cancel allotment made in favour of Brakel.The High Court in 2009 ruled that Brakel could not have changed the membership of the consortium without prior government approval. It also held Brakel had obtained the award on the basis of misrepresentation and suppression of material.However, after continuous litigation over the issue, the State in 2015 decided to refund the upfront premium to Brakel Corporation without interest but after payment of upfront premium by Reliance Infrastructure. In 2016, Reliance also expressed its inability to proceed with the projects. Since the issues continued with the execution of the project, the State in 2017 decided to withdraw its decision of 2015 to refund the amount to Brakel. Adani then challenged the decision before a single-judge of the High Court and the plea was allowed in 2015. The State challenged that order in appeal and got a favourable order from the Division Bench.