Hinduja National Power Corporation Ltd (HNPCL) on Tuesday requested the National Company Law Tribunal that the insolvency petition filed by public sector undertaking Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd against it be dismissed given that the PSU had not completed the project as per the contract.
The case has been dragging on for over four years, where BHEL has contested that HNPCL failed to make a payment of ₹281 crore towards the works it had carried out.
The Hyderabad bench of the NCLT on Tuesday asked BHEL and HNPCL to make written submissions of their arguments by May 2.
The counsel for HNPCL said the company had paid ₹3,800 crore to BHEL for setting up two 520 MW coal-based power-generating units at its Vizag thermal power project but withheld the last instalment of the payment as the units had not cleared the final acceptance test and other evaluation parameters.
“The company has an investment of around ₹12,000 crore, and we have money to pay, but BHEL hasn’t completed the work,” the counsel said.
The counsel also claimed that the PSU was to complete the work by 2013, but it managed to achieve operational clearance only by 2016.
He also argued that BHEL did not attach an invoice to the demand notice sent under Section 8 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016. Moreover, the company had sent two demand notices, which is also in violation of the rules, he argued.
An operational creditor must send a demand notice to initiate insolvency proceedings.
BHEL’s counsel said the plant was operational, so the company had fulfilled its obligation under the contract.
