The Himachal Pradesh government has decided to leave it to the Supreme Court to decide on the fate of Netherlands-based company Brakel Corporation,which was allotted the mega 960 MW Jangi-Thopan power project but the allotment was later set aside by the High Court. The company has filed a special leave petition in the Supreme Court to defend its position that the allotment was done following the proper process and it did not have any legal infirmities a stand that the state government had taken in the High Court before its October 2009 verdict . After the High Court order,the government had decided to cancel the allotment,and go in for fresh bidding of the project. Besides,it also chose to invoke the penalty clause. After Brakel went to the Supreme Court,challenging the HC decision,we deliberated on the issue in detail. It was not legally advisable to go ahead with the process of fresh global bidding of the project,or even to implement other decisions of the Cabinet taken in between. I advised the government to withhold for a while the process of re-advertising or recovering penalty. It is our conscious decision to wait for the final outcome of the case, said Law Secretary A C Dogra. Last week,the government has clarified after media reports that it neither had changed its stand nor favoured anyone. It said: The government has only reaffirmed its stand that it had taken in the High Court to reject the charges of irregularities as was alleged by Reliance Energy. All allegations of unfairness,arbitrariness and illegality made against the state are baseless and deserved to be rejected straightaway. All the decisions in the matter have been taken by the council of ministers and after considering the report of the committee of secretaries which has examined the issues in detail especially after the company was served a showcause notice in 2008, says the state government in its 10-page affidavit.
