Himachal High Court has ordered not to take any coercive action against Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam in the case related to takeover of three power projects of SJVN. There is a tussle going on between the Central Government undertaking and the State Government regarding royalty. On behalf of Sutlej Jal Vidyut Nigam, the court was told that the state government is preparing to take over three central government undertakings while the case is pending in the High Court.
On this, the state government told the court that it is going to hold talks with the concerned representatives of the Central Government soon regarding the royalty and efforts will be made to resolve the matter with mutual consent. A division bench of Chief Justice MS Ramachandra Rao and Justice Jyotsna Rewal Dua issued orders not to take strict action against SJVNL after the statement given by the state government. A hearing on the case has been scheduled for March 13. The court had earlier also asked to resolve this matter by mutual consent. According to the government, there cannot be any compromise with the rights of the state in this matter. For this reason no consensus could be reached on the matter.
The state government has issued a letter on December 20, 2023, warning SJVNL to take over Sunni, Luhri and Dhaulasidh projects if SJVNL does not give its consent to the revised royalty within 15 days. The state government says that it has increased its royalty on power projects from 12, 18 and 30 percent to 20, 30 and 40 percent, whereas SJVN is not getting even five percent royalty from the projects given to it. SJVN had taken this project from the state government, but till date the implementation agreement has not been signed. That is why now the company will have to enter into an agreement as per the new conditions of the state government.
