Chandigarh, July 11 -- The decision of the Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission (HERC) to constitute a three-member expert committee to examine the petition of a 2025 incorporated private company Eleven Power Private Limited for a parallel electricity distribution licence in Gurugram and Nuh districts, has raised questions over the committee's wide-ranging mandate and the selection of its chairperson. The committee, constituted following public hearing on July 8, is headed by retired Haryana IAS officer Alok Nigam and includes former Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board managing director and an engineer, Ravinder Kumar Sharma, and Bibhu Prasad Mahapatra, former director (finance) of power utilities in Uttar Pradesh and Odisha as members. The appointment of retired IAS officer Alok Nigam to head the expert committee has drawn attention because he was the chief administrator (CA) of the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA)-cum-director of town and country planning when HUDA allotted 43 acres in Gurugram to Global Health Ltd (Medanta) in 2004 vide allotment letter 1704 of October 29, 2004. Nigam held the charge of CA, HUDA from September 6, 2004 till March 16, 2005. One of the directors and promoter of Eleven Power, whose licence application is under examination, is Medanta co-founder Sunil Sachdeva who was appointed as a director in Global Health Ltd on August 13, 2004. The commission in its order did not indicate whether a conflict of interest assessment or disclosure was undertaken before constituting the committee. The HERC in its July 9 order said the committee shall function as an independent expert body and its report shall be recommendatory in nature which shall neither affect nor fetter the statutory powers of the commission to adjudicate in accordance with the Electricity Act, 2003 along with the rules framed therein. State officials and legal experts said that while the commission's order appears to have been carefully drafted to withstand legal scrutiny, it is not without vulnerabilities. One issue relates to the constitution of the expert committee itself. In its July 9 order, the commission stated that it was "in receipt of profiles" of three domain experts, retired IAS officer Alok Nigam, former HPSEBL managing director Ravinder Kumar Sharma and former PSU director (finance) Bibhu Prasad Mahapatra, before constituting the panel. However, the order does not reveal who submitted these profiles or the process adopted for selecting the experts. HERC chairperson Nand Lal Sharma, when asked whether an expression of interest was invited, told HT that the committee members were chosen from a nationwide database of power sector experts. "The commission took due care in selecting the committee. The members have experience in the power sector and also bring administrative, legal and technical expertise. They know the subject well,'' Sharma said. Legal experts said that the terms of reference (ToR) of the committee were wide ranging and almost every issue including statutory eligibility has been entrusted to it for examination. The commission has said that the expert committee shall submit a comprehensive report containing clear, reasoned and unambiguous recommendations on whether the petitioner has complied with the requirements prescribed under the Electricity Act, 2003, the HERC (Transmission and Distribution Licensing) Regulations, the Distribution of Electricity Licence (Additional Requirements of Capital Adequacy, Creditworthiness and Code of Conduct) Rules for the grant of a parallel distribution licence in Gurugram and Nuh districts. Asked why the need for setting up an expert committee arose when the commission itself had plenty of domain expertise, HERC chairman said they have only limited knowledge but required broad knowledge for this issue. "Also, we wanted independent experts to examine the matter," he said. "We selected three experts who complement each other. A former Haryana IAS officer with experience in the state's administration and power sector, an electrical engineer specialising in power transmission and distribution, and a financial expert with extensive experience in central PSUs. This is an impartial and balanced expert committee," Sharma said....