The Supreme Court has disposed of a Special Leave Petition filed by Amalgam Steels and Power Ltd. and another captive power generator, declining to interfere with a Jharkhand High Court interim order that permitted a third-party complainant, Energy Watchdog, to participate in a regulatory inquiry into the generators' alleged unauthorised supply of power drawn from their captive plant.
The dispute traces back to a Captive Power Plant Agreement dated 17 May 2012 between Amalgam Steels and Jharkhand Bijli Vitran Nigam Limited (JBVNL) for the supply of surplus power from the company's captive generation facility, renewed in 2017 and again in 2023. In April 2024, Energy Watchdog complained to the Jharkhand government alleging unauthorised use of power from the captive plant, triggering a fact-finding inquiry by the state government and JBVNL. In August 2025, JBVNL issued show-cause notices to the two companies alleging breach of the power supply agreement and raising cross-subsidy surcharge demands totalling roughly ₹285 crore (₹176.74 crore and ₹108.17 crore against the two entities respectively).
The companies challenged Energy Watchdog's participation in the inquiry before the Jharkhand High Court, which passed an interim order allowing that participation to continue; the companies then approached the Supreme Court. Disposing of the petition on 3 September 2026, the Supreme Court declined to disturb the High Court's interim order, expressly clarifying that its own order does not decide the merits of the underlying dispute, the companies' ultimate liability, or the correctness of the cross-subsidy surcharge demand — leaving the Jharkhand High Court to examine, in the proceedings still pending before it, the scope and extent of third-party participation permissible under the Electricity Act, 2003.