Supreme Court Refuses To Interfere With NTPC Plea Against MSME Award Over Failure To Make 75% Pre-Deposit

The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed a special leave petition filed by NTPC Ltd, a government-owned power generation company, refusing to interfere with a Madhya Pradesh High Court order that declined to entertain its challenge to an MSME Facilitation Council award for non-compliance with the statutory pre-deposit requirement.

A bench of Justices J.K. Maheshwari and Atul S. Chandurkar said, “After hearing learned counsel for the petitioner, we see no reason and ground to interfere with the impugned judgment passed by the High Court. Accordingly, the special leave petition is dismissed.”

The High Court, by its order dated December 5, 2025, had upheld the decision of the Commercial Court, Bhopal, which dismissed NTPC's application under Section 19 of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Act, 2006 for failure to deposit 75% of the awarded amount, a mandatory pre-condition for maintaining such a challenge.

The dispute arose out of a work order dated July 30, 2013 issued for construction work at NTPC's Lara Super Thermal Power Project. The contract was closed on October 25, 2016, following which the contractor approached the MSME Facilitation Council.

On May 23, 2023, the Facilitation Council directed NTPC to pay Rs 61.63 lakh along with interest of Rs 2.83 crore, aggregating to Rs 3.45 crore.

Aggrieved by the award, NTPC filed an application under Section 19 of the MSMED Act before the Commercial Court without depositing 75% of the awarded amount. By order dated September 15, 2025, the Commercial Court dismissed the application on this ground.

The High Court, while dismissing NTPC's writ petition, reiterated that compliance with the pre-deposit requirement is a statutory condition for entertaining a challenge to an MSME award and cannot be bypassed.

Declining to interfere with this view, the Supreme Court dismissed the petition.

Click Here To Read/Download Madhya Pradesh HC Order