Rajasthan HC Imposes ₹1.5 Lakh Cost On 'Motivated' PIL Against State Electricity Distributor's Joint Venture With NTPC

Rajasthan High Court imposed a cost of Rs. 1,50,000/- on a retired Chief Engineer of the Electricity Department while dismissing his PIL seeking quashing of joint venture between Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Ltd. and National Thermal Power Corporation Ltd. (“the JV”), opining it to be motivated by oblique motives, and a sheer abuse of process of law.

It was the case of the petitioner that based on his expertise in the field of electricity generation, the JV would lead to production and distribution of electricity at higher rates, going against public interest.

The division bench of Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and Justice Anand Sharma observed that the JV was entered into for undertaking many projects around the Chhabra Thermal Power Plant with an objective to establish additional power generation units, increasing their efficiency and reducing the cost of generation.

It was opined that petitioner's prayer for judicial intervention, at this stage, regarding rates of production and supply in future that too based on his own assumption of potential increase in cost, could not be allowed merely because he was an engineer in the Electricity Department.

“The venture of the petitioner to file PIL is to seek judicial intervention towards assessment, at this stage, with regard to the rates of production and supply in future. The petitioner on his own figment of imagination has sought to canvass that such arrangements may lead to increased cost of production. Determination of tariff depends upon many factors which cannot be gone into by this Court.”

The Court further stated that the PIL appeared to be motivated to only further the cause of certain section of employees association who were opposing the JV, as was clear from the representations placed on record.

In this background, the Court held that the PIL was a sheer wastage of the Court's time as well as an abuse of the process of law, and had to be dismissed with exemplary cost.

Accordingly, apart from the security deposit of Rs. 50,000, the Court imposed a further cost of Rs. 1,00,000 on the petitioner, and dismissed the PIL.

Title: Ajay Chaturvedi v State of Rajasthan & Ors.

Citation: 2025 LiveLaw (Raj) 155

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