The Supreme Court has stayed an order issued by HP High Court to refund the water cess collected on hydro power generation from the power generation companies by HP government.
The Himachal Pradesh High Court had passed an order a few months back to quash the levying of water cess on hydro power generation and had also directed the state government to refund the water cess collected by the state government from hydro generation companies .
The state government had challenged the High Court Order in the Supreme Court of India after which the Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra refused to stay the High Court order of quashing the hydro power generation water cess but stayed the High Court order of refunding the water cess collected by the state government.
The state was represented by Senior Advocates Dinesh Dwivedi, Anup Rattan, and Kapil Sibal among others while the power generation companies were represented by Solicitor General of India, Tushar Mehta and other advocates.