With Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal set to order a CAG audit on discoms, uncertainty still looms over the fate of his move. While the discoms have to respond to the Government by Wednesday, the road to such a scrutiny might well reach a deadlock with a case in this regard already pending in the High Court.
Meanwhile, the move has been welcomed by power regulator — Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission — which says it would bring a lot of transparency within the functioning of these companies.
The CAG Act of 1971 lays down that the duties and powers of the national auditor are with respect to audit of accounts of Union and State-owned Government companies or corporations. However, when Delhi’s power sector was privatised in 2002, the CAG stated that discoms are not Government entities under Section 617 of Companies Act, 1956 which automatically makes them out of the CAG ambit. The Government has 49 per cent stake in the discoms, while 51 per cent lies with the private entities.
A second hurdle might be the ongoing case in this issue wherein a PIl was filed in February 2011 in the Delhi High Court. Interestingly, lawyer and Aam Aadmi Party’s key leader Prashant Bhushan was the one who filed the PIl to bring discoms under the CAG scanner and until now five hearings have been conducted in the case.
The matter still remains before the Delhi High Court where the matter is currently sub judice. In such a situation, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, SK Sharma, will have to pause the audit process.
Further, the discoms might also move to the court. So a possibility of a major legal battle in the days ahead cannot be ruled out. The CAG can, however, conduct an audit if he gets it in written from the lieutenant-Governor.
We had sent recommendation to the Delhi Government for their CAG audit months back. The accounts of discoms should be thoroughly scrutinised. There was not enough proof to the monetary loss they claimed to have been suffering, said PD Sudhakar, chairman, DERC.