Delhi Lieutenant-Governor (L-G) VK Saxena on Friday ordered removal of the Delhi Government’s nominees appointed by the Arvind Kejriwal Government from the Board of the Anil Ambani-owned DISCOMs BRPL (BSES Rajdhani Power Limited) and BYPL (BSES Yamuna Power Limited), who allegedly caused a Rs 8,683.67 crore loss to the Government.
He also directed to replace them with senior Government officers, as had been the practice in the past. These nominees include AAP spokesperson Jasmine Shah, Naveen ND Gupta (son of AAP MP, ND Gupta), Umesh Tyagi and JS Deswal.
Saxena has also asked the Directorate of Vigilance to investigate the omission/commission noted on part of these private individuals acting as Government nominees, from the angle of any possible quid pro quo. Saxena has allegedly taken the decision on the basis of an inquiry report submitted to him by Power Department and the Chief Secretary, following a complaint on September 26, 2022. The L-G has asked for Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to be informed about this and action be taken.
The Delhi Government dismissed the allegations as "absolutely baseless" and said the decisions taken by the L-G are "illegal". "All allegations made by the L-G are absolutely baseless. The Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court has clearly said in its orders that the LG does not have any powers to take independent decisions.
Therefore, his decisions and directions are illegal and unconstitutional. He is acting like a dictator with complete disregard for the highest court of our land. This is tantamount to contempt of the Hon'ble Supreme Court," the AAP government said in a statement. Meanwhile, Raj Niwas said the nomination of these private individuals to the boards of the discoms was patently illegal "since due process of law was not followed and their appointment was void".
"These compromised nominees provided undue financial benefits running into thousands of crores to Ambani's discoms at the cost of the State exchequer and Delhi Government-run undertakings (DTL, IPGCL and PPCL). The L-G has asked for the Chief Minister to be informed about this and action be taken," Raj Niwas said in a statement.
It has been brought out in the report that, these private individuals were illegally appointed surreptitiously by the AAP government as ‘government nominees’ on the Board of BRPL and BYPL in 2019, despite written objections on file by the then LG, Najeeb Jung on November 1, 2016 and LG, Anil Baijal on August 11, 2017.
In 2017, CM Kejriwal had sent a file proposing their appointment as Government nominees, disposing of which Baijal had directed that a Cabinet Decision in this regard be taken and sent to him so that, he could invoke difference of opinion as per Clause 4 of Article 239AA of the Constitution of India.
However, the Cabinet took a decision to appoint them and instead of sending the file to LG, Baijal, who would have invoked the said clause, surreptitiously notified the appointment of these private individuals as Government nominees on the Board of the DISCOMs.
Once appointed these Government nominees rather than taking care of the government interests, in cahoots with the Anil Ambani nominees on the Board, facilitated a decision of the DISCOMs Boards of unilaterally lowering interest rates charged on LPSC (that these DISCOMs owed to DTL/PPCL/IGPCL), from 15-18 per cent to 12 per cent, thereby causing a loss of Rs 8683.67 crore, said the statement.
Delhi government has 49 per cent shares in these private DISCOMs and as per Article VI of the shareholder’s agreement, the government nominees on its Boards have the veto right to block any inappropriate proposal that is detrimental to the state finances.