New Delhi:
The Centre today submitted to the Supreme Court that it is not possible to supply additional power, surrendered by Delhi, to Tamil Nadu.
The Centre told a bench headed by Chief Justice Altamas Kabir that power grid in the state has not got the ability for absorbing the power.
"Grid has not got the capacity for absorbing additional power and Tamil Nadu is itself responsible for it," Attorney General G E Vahanvati told the bench.
He said the state has filed the petition before the Supreme Court on superficial ground.
The bench, however said it would look into the matter as it issued a notice to the Centre and asked it to file its reply. It also asked the Central Electricity Authority to file a report on the issue and listed the case for further hearing on November 29.
The bench was hearing a suit filed by Tamil Nadu for direction to the Centre to reallocate the entire power surrendered by Delhi - 230 MW round-the-clock and 1491 MW between midnight and 6 am - to it.
The Tamil Nadu in its petition said that due to failure of the south-west monsoon, it is facing acute shortage of power and the Centre should not reallocate the surrendered power to the other states.