Solar firms move Karnataka HC over “unreasonable” domestic-cell mandate

Published 8 June 2026 · india

A group of solar manufacturers and developers has approached the Karnataka High Court to defer a rule that, from June 1, requires most new solar

A group of solar manufacturers and developers has approached the Karnataka High Court to defer a rule that, from June 1, requires most new solar projects to use only domestically made cells. They cite the gap between what Indian solar-cell makers charge and international prices. Cells listed under the government’s mandatory “ALMM List-II” sell at around ₹13 a watt, against an imported price of about ₹5 a watt, the petitioners say. “₹5 and ₹13 is unreasonable. That is what we are asking [the court to address],” Ramesh Shivanna of the Karnataka Renewable Energy Systems Manufacturers Association (KRESMA), which led the petition, told The Hindu. ALMM is the government ratified Approved List of Models and Manufacturers and a list of domestic producer companies whose solar panels and constituent cells are mandatory for electricity distribution in India. ALMM-1 is a list of about 130 module manufacturers. ALMM-2 is a smaller group of about 17 companies that makes the solar cells for these modules. The writ petition, filed on June 6 by solar industry associations from Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, challenges Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) orders that enforce ALMM List-II — the approved list of domestic solar-cell manufacturers — for projects commissioned on or after June 1, 2026.

Reportedly other state associations too have filed similar petitions in other courts. The petitioners say they do not oppose the list, but want its enforcement deferred, at least a year, until domestic cells are available in adequate quantity and quality, and at a competitive price. The petitioners also point to the Finance Ministry’s classification of the West Asia conflict as a force majeure event, under which the MNRE allowed extensions of contractual deadlines to solar-cell makers; the same consideration, they say, should apply to developers. Shivanna said the government must step in on price until domestic supply matures. “The government should regulate the price,” he said. “When something is available so cheap in the global market and here you are being made to pay [much more], it is the government’s responsibility to study what is happening globally and in India.” A handful of cell makers, he argued, were capturing the gain: by his estimate, at a 30 GW annual build and a roughly ₹8-a-watt premium, about ₹24,000 crore a year would flow to “four-five manufacturers,” several of whom had also received production-linked incentives. According to an MNRE database, only six of the seventeen ALMM-2 companies carry “high-efficiency” solar cells cells — Emmvee, Premier Energies Photovoltaic, Mundra Solar PV, Tata Power Renewable Energy (a small 247 MW line), Waaree and Renewsys, Reliance and Jupiter Solartech.