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HC refuses to stay CAG audit of discoms

The Delhi High Court on Friday refused to stay a Delhi Government order asking the Capital’s three
power distribution companies, BSES Rajdhani, BSES Yamuna and TPDDL, to get their accounts audited by the Comptroller and Auditor-General, saying the matter needed a detailed hearing.
Directing the three companies to cooperate with CAG in auditing of their accounts, Justice Manmohan directed the auditor not to submit the audit report on these companies to the State Government till March 19, the next date of hearing.
The companies challenged the Government’s decision to get their accounts audited from 2002 when the job of power distribution in the Capital was transferred to them from the Delhi Vidyut Board by the then Sheila Dikshit Government to check power thefts and transmission losses.
The petitioners argued that they were beyond the jurisdiction of CAG. They were ready to get their accounts examined in any manner under the law applicable to them, they submitted. Counsel for TDDL argued that private firms could be audited by CAG as they did not figure in the bodies and authorities which could be audited by it. Its counsel further argued that it was a joint venture company with the Delhi Government having a minority stake of 49, so it was the majority share-holder which would decide the course of auditing.
Countering the argument, Delhi Government counsel submitted that CAG could audit the accounts of these companies as the CAG Act provided for it.
Their petitions further said that CAG-empanelled auditors had been auditing their accounts for the past ten years. And even the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) had done their special audit several times under provisions of the Electricity Act 2003.
They said that they had a strong and transparent system of auditing and their accounts were audited both by unimpeachable external and internal auditors.
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