Adani-Gujarat Urja Vikas dispute: Supreme Court accepts settlement, disposes of curative petition

The Supreme Court on Tuesday accepted the settlement reached between Adani Power (Mundra) Limited and the Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Limited (GUVNL) in relation to the claim of ₹10,000 crore arising from termination of a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) between the two [Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Limited v. Adani Power (Mundra) Limited]. .In view of the settlement, a five-judge Bench of Chief Justice of India NV Ramana and Justices UU Lalit, DY Chandrachud, BR Gavai and Surya Kant disposed of the curative petition filed by GUVNL against the Court's 2019 verdict that had upheld termination of the PPA.When the curative petition was taken up for hearing today, Attorney General (AG) KK Venugopal informed the Court that the parties have amicably settled the instant dispute."There was a claim of ₹10,000 crores compensation and it now stands withdrawn. Therefore, we request for the settlement to be recorded," AG stated.."In view of settlement between the parties, we dispose of the curative plea saying that both parties are governed by the settlement entered into by parties," the Bench dictated..A three-judge Bench headed by now retired Justice Arun Mishra had in July 2019 held that the notice of termination of a Power Purchase Agreement by Adani Power Mundra Limited to the Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Limited (GUVNL) in 2009 was legal and valid.The Court, by way of that judgment, had allowed Adani Power to approach the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) for determination of compensatory tariff for the power the company supplied to the GUVNL.The CERC was directed to decide on this issue within a period of three months..In 2007, Adani Power had signed a PPA with GUVNL for the supply of 1,000 MW power at a certain rate from its power project situated in Korba in Chhattisgarh. However, Adani later informed GUVNL that the power supply would be from its plant located in Mundra instead of Korba. Therefore, another PPA was signed between the two entities and there was an assurance given to Adani by the Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation (GMDC) that it would supply coal to Adani.The GMDC, however, did not supply coal to Adani as assured and the situation remained the same despite several reminders sent by Adani to the Gujarat government, the GMDC and the GUVNL in this regard. Subsequently, Adani terminated the PPA and fulfilled the condition of payment of liquidated damages as was stipulated in the PPA.The termination notice was challenged before the Gujarat Electricity Regulatory Commission (GERC), which held that Adani Power illegally terminated the PPA. This decision was upheld by the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity, leading to the appeal before the Supreme Court..On September 16, 2021, the Supreme Court had issued notice in a curative petition filed by the Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Ltd (GUVL)..In 2019, this case has been in limelight due to a letter written by Senior Advocate Dushyant Dave, then President of Supreme Court Bar Association to the then Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, alleging that cases involving Adani Group’s companies were listed out of turn by the Supreme Court during the summer vacation and disposed of in contravention to the settled practice and procedure of the apex court.