Plea against PSEB dismissed
Saurabh Malik
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 27
The Punjab and Haryana High Court today made the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) all the more powerful.

Following the dismissal of an appeal against the board by Justice Nirmaljit Kaur, now it will not have to pay surcharge on the freight to the railways and may even get a refund of Rs 94 crore. The dispute before the courts was whether the board was liable to pay surcharge on the freight to the railways for period prior to July 27, 2002. The board gets coal for its three power plants at Ropar, Bathinda and Lehra Mohabbat from the coalfields in West Bengal and other places through the railways; and the railway authorities were demanding as much as Rs 500 crore for the services. Initially the matter was taken up by the HC in 2003, but was referred for arbitration with the consent of the parties.