The Supreme Court sought responses from the discoms and the government. The court asked APERC to expedite the hearing. The CPI demanded a judicial inquiry into the SECI affair.

VIJAYAWADA: Purchase pacts between discoms in Andhra Pradesh and Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), the PSU at the heart of the controversy surrounding a supply deal with a Gautam Adani-owned company, had initially been contested by the then opposition Telugu Desam Party and the CPI.
Andhra current CM N Chandrababu NaiduThe TDP and other opposition parties had objected to what they said were unilateral purchase agreements signed by discoms in 2021 without any negotiations with SECI.
They contested the purchase agreements in court, claiming that solar energy was purchased at a higher price than the prevailing market price.
Current state finance minister Payyavula Keshav, who was then the chairman of the assembly committee on public affairs, and CPI state secretary K Ramakrishna filed PILs separately in the Supreme Court in 2022. Both the petitions are pending.
Ramakrishna’s PIL came after the government approved the proposal to buy solar power at Rs 2.49 per unit. He claimed that the process adopted by the then YSRCP government in Andhra Pradesh was against Electricity Act, 2003and would result in losses to the exchequer.
Keshav filed a petition soon after on the same grounds, alleging that the state was paying Rs 2.49 per unit for solar energy when it was available at Rs 1.99 per unit in the open market.
The HC issued notices to the discoms and the state and union governments to file their replies. A group of interim petitioners then took the Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (APERC) to court for approving the discom’s proposal to buy solar power at a price allegedly higher than the market price.
The state government claimed that approval was given based on pricing decided by the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC).
The Supreme Court asked the respondents to file fresh responses, but declined to grant a stay on the agreements. The HC then asked the discoms to get a fresh approval based on the prescribed procedure by conducting a public hearing on tariff fixation.
The petitions filed by the discoms before APERC are still pending. In the latest orders passed in March, the apex court asked APERC to expedite the hearing of the petitions of the discoms.
Ramakrishna told TOI that since allegations of bribery and corruption have now been leveled, a judicial inquiry by a sitting judge should be initiated into the SECI affair. He also demanded the termination of all agreements with Adani Group. Till late Thursday, the TDP had not reacted to the developments emerging from a US court’s indictment against the industrialist.