The Ministry of Power (MoP) has invited an expression of interest (EoI) to empanel members of the conciliation committee of independent experts (CCIE) to resolve disputes in contracts of central public sector undertakings (CPSU) or statutory bodies of the ministry.

The EoI must be submitted within 21 days.

To be eligible for empanelment as a member of the CCIE, candidates should have held the post of the rank of secretary or additional secretary to the Government of India of any of the ministries or departments. Alternatively, they must have held the post of full-time functional director (dealing with technical matters) or CMD in the board of a CPSU operating in the field of power generation, distribution, or transmission.

The candidate must have held the post of full-time functional director in the board of a state PSU or private sector company, with an annual turnover of ₹20 billion, operating in power generation, distribution, and transmission. Candidates who have been chairpersons or members of the Central Electricity Authority or Central Water Commission are also eligible for empanelment.

Alternatively, the candidate should have experience as a full-time functional director or CMD in a commercial bank, financial institutions, or non-banking financial companies like REC, PFC, or Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA).

The Independent experts’ panel will have a tenure of three years. The tenue can be extended up to five years.

The main objectives of CCIE are to provide a faster and cost-effective mechanism for resolving contractual disputes and avoid time and cost overruns to ensure the timely completion of projects.

The ministry said the option for resolution through CCIE would be open only if the parties withdraw the arbitration proceeding and undertake to forego their rights to proceed for further arbitration. However, other legal options would be open to the parties if the conciliation proceedings failed.

The CCIE mechanism must be incorporated by all CPSUs and statutory bodies of the ministry in future contract documents.

The Committee should complete the proceedings of each case in five sittings within three months from the date of the reference made to the CCIE. In exceptional cases, the time might be extended for another three months at the discretion of the Committee with reasons to be recorded in writing.

In 2020, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy issued clarifications regarding the dispute resolution mechanism to address unforeseen disputes between solar and wind developers and the Solar Energy Corporation of India, NTPC, and NHPC.

The dispute resolution mechanism was established back in 2019.