Kerala High Court Asks Electricity Regulatory Commission To Conduct Physical Public Hearings For Revising Renewable Energy Regulations

The Kerala High Court on Monday (July 28) ordered the Kerala State Electricity Regulatory Commission to conduct hybrid public hearings instead of online hearings alone while considering the revision of the Renewable Energy Regulations. 

A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Nitin Jamdar and Justice Basant Balaji observed that physical hearings may be held at Kozhikode, Palakkad, Ernakulam and Thiruvananthapuram and left it open to the Commission to decide the venue and timings of the hearings.

The Court observed, "The Commission will endeavour to finalise the venue and time keeping in mind aspects of accessibility, sufficiency, convenience and safety of the participants."

The Court was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by the Domestic On-Grid Solar Power Prosumers Forum Kerala, which prayed for a direction to the Commission to conduct hybrid public hearings as was done during previous occasions. The petitioner was aggrieved by the fact that the Commission had completely done away with physical hearings.

The Court directed that hearings must be conducted at Kozhikode, Palakkad, Ernakulam and Thiruvananthapuram as was done during the earlier hearing in respect of previous drafts, regulations and tariff proposals. As regard the regulation of the conduct of public hearing, it also directed the Commission to formulate a procedure and notify the same in advance.

Earlier, the Commission had submitted before the Court that it had faced law and order issues on previous occasions when hearing was done in the physical mode.

Taking note of the submission, the Court further observed: "However, taking into account the observations made in this judgment, it is open to the commission to request to the additional respondents, i.e., State Police Chief and City Police Commissioner to deploy enough police personnel to assist the Commission in orderly physical public hearing at the aforementioned location. Upon such request being received, additional respondents will provide necessary assistance to the Commission."

With the aforesaid directions, the PIL was disposed of.

Case Title: Domestic On-Grid Solar Power Prosumers Forum Kerala v. Kerala State Electricity Regulatory Commission and Ors.

Case No: WP(PIL) 79/2025

Citation: 2025 LiveLaw (Ker) 461 

Counsel for the petitioner: Yeshwanth Shenoy, Aysha Abraham

Counsel for the respondents: Nandagopal S. Kurup - Standing Counsel for R1; V. Tekchand - Senior Government Pleader

Click To Read/Download Judgment