No Lau as PNGRB member legal
Former judge Kamini Lau will not be the next PNGRB member legal after all.
On August 12 (2024), the oil ministry issued a fresh vacancy notice for the role, lying vacant since September 26 (2023), when the former member legal AK Pande passed away. Anyone interested must apply by September 9 (2024).
Still unclear is what happened to the last vacancy issued on November 10 (2023) and former judge Lau's selection. An industry source speculates that the cabinet's appointments committee did not approve her file.
"She has been a controversial judge," he says. "And the ACC does a thorough background check on the candidates while appointing anyone."
Another source believes the advert presents a ray of hope. "The member legal interviews were held in March (2024)," he says.
"But legal cases have been piling up for more than a year; hopefully, the ministry will appoint someone soon." No legal work has happened at the PNGRB since August 7 (2023), when it filed the last order in a case filed by Gujarat State Petronet (GSPL) against Hazira-based steel mill AMNS for trying to lay a dedicated but unauthorised gas pipeline to Shell's Hazira terminal.
"Appointing the member legal should be fast-tracked," we hear. "This will ensure the pending legal case workload at the PNGRB is cleared."
Gas retailers have been worrying about whether the oil ministry would fill the vacancy quickly. "After (SS) Chahar retired (in March 2020), Pande was selected after a wait of almost two years."
Selecting Pande was an arduous process, and the oil ministry had to advertise the post three times: on February 29 (2020), August 28 (2020) and February 4 (2021). Another reason legal work at the PNGRB is held up is that the Appellate Tribunal of Electricity (APTEL), one of India's most prominent appeals bodies, strongly objects to all PNGRB orders passed without a member legal.
Even the Delhi High Court has repeatedly directed the oil ministry to accelerate the recruitment of a new member legal.