Punjab and Haryana HC directs PSPCL board to decide chief engineer suspension appeal within two months

PATIALA: The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Tuesday disposed of a writ petition filed by Harish Kumar Sharma, Chief Engineer at the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL), directing the corporation’s Board of Directors to decide his appeal against suspension through a speaking order within two months.

The court also held that the Chairman-cum-Managing Director (CMD), who issued the suspension order, must not participate in the appeal process.Justice Harpreet Singh Brar noted that the PSPCL service regulations provided an alternative remedy by way of appeal. The court ordered that Sharma’s appeal, if filed within one week of the order, be decided preferably within two months.Sharma, an officer with over 34 years of service, was suspended on November 1 this year, one day after Basant Garg took charge as CMD.

His counsel argued that the CMD lacked competence to issue the suspension, that the order violated mandatory procedure under Rule 4(1) and appeared predetermined, and that Sharma had no role in fuel price fixation or fuel purchase decisions.PSPCL’s counsel submitted that Sharma had an adequate statutory remedy through appeal. The court accepted this but barred the CMD from adjudicating the appeal to avoid bias.

Sharma’s suspension followed allegations of substantial financial losses caused by high power generation costs at the Guru Gobind Singh Super Thermal Plant in Ropar and the GATP Goindwal Sahib plant, which Sharma oversaw. Despite sourcing coal from PSPCL's own mines, the cost per unit reportedly exceeded that of private plants by a significant margin, with losses cited in several crores.The PSPCL Power Engineers Association opposed the suspension, calling the comparison between ageing state-owned plants and modern private plants “technically unsound.”

They said such actions, taken without broad-based review or technical evaluation, were demoralising and risked damaging institutional confidence.Tensions within PSPCL rose after the recent termination of Director (Generation) Harjit Singh under similar allegations. Engineers staged protests, demanding that decisions involving senior technical officers be made through transparent processes with input from technocrats rather than by bureaucratic haste.Suspended Chief Engineer Harish Sharma is supposed to file his appeal within one week of receiving the court order.