A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court challenging the Bombay High Court’s refusal to investigate the procurement of power contracts with states by Adani Green Energy Limited using allegedly illegal means.
The Supreme Court’s March 27 order dismissed a petition filed by social activist Jitendra Poonamchand Maru seeking a direction to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to initiate an investigation based on a warrant issued in 2024 by the US Eastern District Court of New York and the Department of Justice.
Maru’s appeal to the Supreme Court last month was successfully verified by the High Court Registry on July 11 and is likely to be listed soon.
The petition filed through advocate Ashikkumar Madhanprasad Verma questioned the Supreme Court’s conclusion in terming the petition as “abuse of court process” while dismissing it. “The Supreme Court delivered the judgment on completely wrong grounds and in complete ignorance of the record of the case and failed to appreciate the seriousness of the crimes committed by the guilty group of companies and those responsible for them,” the petition said.
The petition also states that there was no material before the court to arrive at such cause and effect, as there is no evidence to show that the petitioner had any commercial interest in pursuing the case.
It said the judgment passed by the Eastern District Court of New York and the findings of that court “unambiguously established” the serious crimes that had been committed and the Supreme Court should have directed registration of an FIR and probe into the matter to inquire as to how thousands of rupees were spent illegally.
The Supreme Court even admonished the petitioner for the decade-long delay as the crimes complained of were committed in the year 2020-2024. Although the Eastern District Court of New York’s ruling came on November 20, 2024, the petition notes that documents relating to the case were “exclusively within the scope of the parties thereto” and the petitioner cannot be blamed for the delay in approaching court.
The petition before the SC said that the Ministry of Renewable Energy has formed the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) to explore the possibility of increasing the use of renewable energy in India. As part of the government tender issued in 2019, SECI awarded manufacturing-related projects to Adani Green and Azure jointly.
It was alleged that around 2020, Adani Green Energy Limited – a renewable energy company under the Adani Group in collusion with Delhi-based Azure Global Limited, secured power purchase agreements with states by paying huge bribes. “Briberies amounting to approximately thousands of crore rupees $“Rs 2,029 crore was paid to state government officials and state-owned disk companies, which in turn benefited the companies,” the petition said.
The petition also added that the HC erred in holding that there was “no document whatsoever on record” to prove that the petitioner had “vested interest or indirect motive” behind filing the petition.
He stated that shortly after learning of the news of the indictment issued by the US court, he obtained certified copies of the complaints from the relevant courts and filed a complaint before the Central Bank of Iraq, according to which a petition was submitted to the Supreme Court.
“Had bribery not been committed and inflated prices had not been paid for purchasing power, the ordinary citizens of India would have been the beneficiaries and as such, this is a fraud not only against the Union of India and the state governments but against the citizens in general,” Maru said.
