Relief for Sharad Pawar as apex court quashes Enron-Dabhol PIL

Eighteen years after a high powered committee first exposed the web of corruption, bribery, fraud and misrepresentation in the agreement for the Enron-Dabhol power project, the top court dismissed demands for a judicial enquiry into it considering the enormous delay in the case.

Thursday's decision comes as a relief to NCP President Sharad Pawar in poll-bound season as the petition levelled serious allegations of corruption involving politicians, bureaucrats and corporates. Pawar was chief minister of Maharashtra in 1993 when the deal was made.

The report prepared by a five-member Committee headed by former bureaucrat Madhav Godbole in 2001 is the foundation of the PIL filed by the Centre of Indian Trade Unions in the Supreme Court.

Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna dismissed the petition challenging the execution of Power Purchase Agreement (PPA). They felt that no purpose would be served to reopen the case after more than a quarter of a century had elapsed since the deal was signed between the Maharashtra State Electricity Board and Dabhol Power Corporation Ltd.

The foreign partner, Enron, has abandoned the project and most senior officials have retired.

Even the Godbole Committee was divided (3:2), with the majority seeing no purpose in ordering a judicial probe. "In view of the long delay and non-availability of many persons involved, no useful purpose would be served in continuing with the judicial commission of enquiry," the Bench concluded.

Meanwhile, Nationalist Congress Party spokesperson Nawab Malik said the BJP and Shiv Sena had been running a false campaign alleging Pawar of corruption since 1990. "With the Supreme Court order, the saffron parties stand exposed," he noted.

In early February, the Maharashtra government had urged the court to end the proceedings which have been pending for the past several years. It now said the apex court's decision will give confidence to stakeholders to take steps for further revival of the project.

"The project has been taken over by the Government of India, the Maharashtra government and Indian banks as equity holders," said state Energy department secretary Arvind Singh. "Recently, efforts were made to revive the project and a long-term power purchase agreement was signed with the Indian Railways."

He further said that going back and reopening the issues would have been a setback to the revival of the project and put the equity holders at risk.