NEW DELHI, SEPT 28: The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Union Government to file within four weeks its reply to an application filed by the Centre of Indian Trade Union (CITU) seeking review of the controversial Enron Power Project in Maharashtra.The application also sought the court's permission to enable the CITU to pursue the matter in its representative capacity as it involved issues of public importance.The direction was issued by a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice A S Anand during resumed hearing of a special leave petition by the CITU, challenging a Bombay High Court order dismissing its writ petition against the project's validity.By an order dated May 2, 1997, the Apex Court had declined to consider the question of the project's validity as it was at that stage and also declined leave to the petitioner to pursue the matter in its representative capacity. The court, however, admitted the petition on the question of the accountability of the state of Maharashtra and itsconcerned public servants holding significant public offices in view of the prima facie inconsistency in their stand on the project from time to time.Arguing on the application, senior counsel Shanti Bhushan, appearing as amicus curiae, submitted that important developments had taken place which belied the assumption on the basis of which the court refused to grant leave earlier to the petitioner on the issue of the validity of the project and the contract.The counsel contended that the impact of the developments was that the actual tariff which the Maharashtra State Electricity Board would pay be in the range of Rs 864 crore a year and if the phase two of the project were to be commissioned, the tariff would be of the order of nearly Rs 5,000 crore a year which would render the state of Maharashtra and the MSEB bankrupt in a few years.
