Error Forgiven By APTEL As SAEL Seeks Relief

In an interesting judgement where the principle of no prejudice to anyone else was considered in the case of an error made, the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity  provided relief to Sukhbir Agro Energy Limited (Now SAEL Limited) versus the UPERC.

SAEL headed to APTEL after an order issued by UPERC on November 11, 2021, which dismissed SAEL Ltd.’s petition to rectify an error in the data entered into SLDC’s portal concerning its declared capacity, available capacity, and banking of power between May 2020 and December 2020. Due to this error, UPPCL denied payments amounting to approximately Rs. 9.26 crores for the period from October 2020 to December 2020.

SAEL Ltd. argued that the mistake in data entry was inadvertent and should have been rectified under the inherent powers of UPERC. However, UPERC ruled that corrections could only be made within five days, as per Clause 6.5.25 of the Uttar Pradesh Electricity Grid Code 2007. The Commission observed that the error persisted for over six months and could not be rectified beyond the stipulated timeframe.

In its appeal, SAEL Ltd. contended that the five-day limit did not explicitly prohibit corrections beyond this period and urged the Tribunal to allow rectification based on regulatory gaps. UPPCL and SLDC countered that the regulations were binding, and the Commission had no authority to override them.

The Tribunal analyzed the regulatory framework, arguing that the Electricity Grid Code lacked clarity on handling errors beyond five days. It emphasized the need for regulatory flexibility while balancing procedural integrity. The judgment ultimately discusses whether UPERC can exercise discretion in rectifying errors beyond the stipulated period under its regulatory powers. In doing so, it held the principle of prejudice or harm to the other party as a lodestar to decide such cases. With no such harm to either of the respondents, it saw merit in allowing SAEL’s appeal.