Bihar blamed for ignoring Centre on crime nothing of the sort happened. Costs of electricity to be generated by the plant were also made to look lower by changing the fuel to the cheaper naphtha, and by raising the rate of ``discount'' used to evaluate the present value of the electricity tariffs.

While Enron had specified the electricity tariffs over the life of the plant, these had to be ``discounted'' to compare them with other tariffs existing today. The earlier ``discount'' rate used by the Ministry of Power for the original project was 12 per cent - the Maharashtra government, however, used a higher figure of 17 per cent. A higher ``discount'' obviously made the tariff look lower than it actually was.

The Court, in fact, came down on the changing stance of the government and issued notice to the state of Maharashtra on the limited question about its inconsistent stand on the project and the contract. Issuing notice to the State of Maharashtra the judges said the court was ``satisfied'' that the accountability of those persons in the State of Maharashtra should be gone into, particularly in view of its changing stand from time to time regarding the project.

Earlier, Shanti Bhushan, counsel for the Centre of Indian Trade Union, the appellant, submitted before the court that it was a fit case to be examined in public interest. He contended that the appellant had already moved an application seeking leave of the court to file the special leave petition in a representative capacity. CITU contended that the dealings and negotiations by a government with a party alleged on oath to be indulging in fraud, misrepresentation, corruption and bribery were matters of great concern and involved matters of probity in public life.So while the project itself has cleared what looks like the last legal hurdle in its path, it would be interesting to see if the Court's ruling on the conduct of the Maharashtra government will have any political fallout.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.