Karnataka HC strikes down 2022 Green Energy Open Access Rules, holds Centre lacked power to frame them

Karnataka HC strikes down 2022 Green Energy Open Access Rules, holds Centre lacked power to frame them

January 7, 2025

The Karnataka High Court has struck down the Electricity (Promoting Renewable Energy Through Green Energy Open Access) Rules, 2022, stating that the Central The Government of India did not have legislative competence under the Electricity Act, 2003, to enact those regulations. The Court has also quashed the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (Terms and Conditions for Green Energy Open Access) Regulations, 2022 framed under the now-struck-down national rules.

This judgment was delivered by a single-judge bench of Justice N. S. Sanjay Gowda on December 20, 2024, following the filing of petitions by a spate of hydropower companies. The petitioners contended that the Electricity Act dictates that only the state-level regulatory commission and not the central government has the authority to govern open access arrangements.

In fact, the Court observed in its judgment that though the Electricity Act conferred an exclusive power of regulating transmission and open access only upon the state-level commission, rulemaking by the Centre under Section 176 could not override these substantive provisions using its so-called “residual powers”. Consequently, the court had declared void not only the central GEOA Rules but also the state-level regulations framed under them. It has ordered the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission to frame fresh regulations, if needed, for allowing open access to green energy generators and buyers guided by national policy frameworks but operating independently. The Court has allowed the continuation of existing arrangements, including wheeling and banking facilities availed of earlier, under interim orders till new regulations are laid down to prevent disruption for the stakeholders.