A writ petition has been filed with the High Court, challenging the legality of the power deal signed between the Bangladesh government and the Adani Group of India.
A Supreme Court lawyer on Wednesday (November 13) filed the writ petition, seeking directive of the higher court on the government to review or cancel the electricity agreement with Adani Group of India.
Barrister M Abdul Qaiyum submitted the writ petition as a public interest litigation.
The writ petition is likely to be heard by the HC bench of Justice Farah Mahbub and Justice Debasish Roy Chowdhury. Abdul Qaiyum told media that HC may hear the petition next week.
Terming the deal unequable, unfair and opposite to the interest of the country, the petitioner pleaded for modifying the agreement on the basis of equity and fairness.
The petition also pleaded for cancelling the deal if Adani Group declines to modify the agreement.
Earlier, the lawyer sent a legal notice to the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) and the Ministry of Energy, asking them to review or cancel the deal with Adani Group in three days. As the notice went unheard, the petitioner filed the writ with the High Court.
On November 6, the lawyer sent a legal notice to the chairman of Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) and the secretary of the Ministry of Energy, asking to review or cancel the deal with Adani Group in three days.
In the petition, he said that many experts have reportedly opined that under the agreement, Bangladesh will pay significantly higher prices in comparison to what it pays for its other coal-based power for lower-grade coal.
The coal will be supplied from an Adani-owned mine in Australia to an Adani-owned port in India from where it will get shipped to the Godda plant, which is in a coal-mining state (at the expenses of Bangladesh).
The writ petition referred to an Aljazeera report that said, ‘BPDB was basically locked into a power purchase agreement that allows Adani to import coal into an Indian coal mining state from Australia and pass the full cost onto Bangladesh.’
Abdul Qaiyum in the petition said, ‘It is inconceivable that how such a one-sided agreement was executed by the BPDB unless officials involved were managed by Adani Group.’
The power deal with Adani Group has raised serious concerns about overpricing from the start.
The 25-year power purchase agreement was signed between the Bangladesh government and the Adani Power (Jharkhand) Limited on November 5 in 2017.
At that time, no imported coal-based power plant was started in the country.
Electricity is supplied to Bangladesh from Adani’s 1,600 MW power plant in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand.
The Adani costs Bangladesh about 12 taka ($0.1008) a unit. That is 27% higher than the rate of India’s other private producers and as much as 63% more than Indian state-owned plants.
Bangladesh is now struggling to clear dues to Adani Power because of difficulty in accessing dollars to make payment.
