Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday convinced Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) to audit power distribution companies in Delhi, but CNBC-TV18’s Siddharth Zarabi reports that the government and the CAG have no authority to audit these joint venture (power) companies.
The facts according to the companies in question are very clear that when Delhi discom's were privatised and broken up into three successive entities the CAG itself on July 1 2002 had given a letter which said that, "discoms are not government entities under section 617 of Companies Act 1956 and hence are out of the CAG ambit. "
There are several other reasons that discoms will provide in their reply to the government.
Also, it is not very clear as to whether the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Delhi is itself aware of the fact that Prashant Bhushan, a key activist of AAP had in February 2011 filed a PIL in Delhi High Court, five hearings have been conducted in that case. That case remains before the Delhi High Court.
According to companies in question the matter is sub-judice and the civil administration or the CAG cannot simply rush in.
The larger point is about whether the national auditor has the authority to go into such ventures, Vinod Rai's attempt to get CAG the authority to audit public private partnerships failed to get nod from the central government. Also, given that there have been no legislative amendments to empower the CAG specifically, I think we are headed into a phase where this will become a major legal battle in the days ahead.
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