Hidden in plain sight: a study of the appellate tribunal for electricity in India's energy transition and legal imagination

Thesis

The Appellate Tribunal for Electricity (‘APTEL’) is a statutory adjudicative institution tasked with responding to appeals against orders taken by the central and state electricity regulatory commissions in India. As such, it is uniquely positioned in the legal landscape of India’s ongoing transition to renewable energy to both stabilize legal, administrative and regulatory disruption caused by this process, and substantively develop the law. Despite its central and indispensable role in this energy transition, the APTEL remains hidden in plain sight.

The invisibility of this tribunal in legal scholarship is surprising, but also revealing of the need to expand our legal imagination as lawyers and law scholars in thinking about the role and contributions of law and tribunalised adjudication during transformative change. This includes the need for scholarly recognition of the simple fact that the law can develop in unexpected places and in unexpected ways.

The legal present is complex, and how this present is being reasoned and understood by the APTEL is not only developing an understanding of it but also crafting an understanding of the energy future desired of transition. To foster the legal imagination of tribunals like the APTEL, we need to develop a robust mental picture of the legal present, with all of its rich legal complexity. This means focusing away from lofty narratives and focusing onto the routine and everyday legal matters brought before legal institutions tasked with resolving them.

To that end, this thesis navigates a body of case law that has never been mapped before and tells the story of a tribunal that has been largely overlooked in legal scholarship. By bringing APTEL’s role, contributions, adjudicative competence, and complexity front and centre, this thesis offers a thicker legal picture of the tribunalised adjudication of energy transition in India and highlights the importance of taking APTEL’s legal work seriously.

Authors: Jannu, N

• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: legal reasoning; climate change; renewable energy; electricity; India; energy transition; tribunals; legal imagination
• Subjects: Administrative Law; Environmental Law; Public Law