Whose power plant is it? SC to decide between Bihar, Jharkhand

New Delhi, Jul 20 (PTI) A tussle between Bihar and Jharkhand over the ownership of a power plant has landed in the Supreme Court.The bone of contention between the two states is the Tenughat Thermal Power Station in Lalpania area of Jharkhand. Both the states are staking a claim over the unit which was a Bihar-government entity till the new state of Jharkhand was carved out of Bihar under the Bihar Reorganisation Act 2000.After the state boundaries were redrawn, the power unit fell in the territory of Jharkhand, which has now claimed ownership over it.A bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan has directed both the states to maintain status quo till August 1, the next date of hearing on Jharkhand's plea.Tenughat Thermal Power Station was the only industrial undertaking owned by Tenughat Vidyut Nigam Ltd, a wholly-owned enterprise of Bihar before the creation of Jharkhand.Jharkhand counsel Harish Salve and Mahesh Agarwal while mentioning the matter before the bench said that after apportionment of the assets and liabilities of undivided Bihar between the two successor states, the power plant is now vested in Jharkhand and not in Bihar.Jharkhand has moved the apex court challenging a judgement of a division bench of Patna High Court in which it held that the registered office and the principle seat of business of TVNL had been in Patna and, therefore, the TVNL shares would vest in Bihar and not at Lalpania where its work is situated.It further held that the apportionment of such investments in TVNL shares needed to be considered in terms of Section 46(3) of the Act, which provided that the investment would vest in the state where the principle seat of business of the undertaking was located. PTI
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