Senior Advocate embroiled in legal battle for recovery of ₹25 lakh as fees from UP discom

Senior Advocate TK Ganju has been embroiled in legal proceedings over recovery of alleged dues amounting to nearly ₹25 lakh from a Uttar Pradesh discom as his fees for appearing for the company.

However, the State-run Madhyanchal Vidyut Vitran Nigam Limited has stated that the dues in question are in relation to adjourned hearings and there were no effective hearings in the matter,

Ganju was engaged in July 2021 to represent the discom in arbitration-related proceedings against Reliance Infrastructure Limited, for a fee of ₹2.75 lakh per appearance.

He filed a civil suit in Delhi's Patiala House Courts in May after non-payment of the fees for some hearings.

In September 2022, the discom raised an objection over some of the invoices raised on grounds of no effective hearing having taken place, with only dates being given for further hearings due to a paucity of time.

Ganju has termed the same frivolous and based on a non-existent contractual condition and has sought payment of dues along with 12 per cent interest.

Bar & Bench has learnt that the matter has since been referred to mediation, with four sessions having taken place.

The invoices in question are from dates between September 2020 to September 2022.

The suit has been filed through Advocate Abhishek Bhardwaj.

Advocate Aviral Saxena appeared for the discom in the mediation proceedings.