The 60-day rule: how installers avoid vendor deactivation

On 24 August 2026 MNRE advised every registered PM Surya Ghar vendor not to hold consumer applications for more than 60 days without a valid reason. The same notice deactivated 66 vendors. For an installer the question is simple: "hamara number to nahi aayega?" This post sets out what the notice says, what it leaves open, and a routine that keeps you off the next list.

What MNRE's notice says (confirmed)

The notice is titled "Notice to Registered Vendors: Time-Bound Performance Mandate for Clearing Pending Applications" and is dated 24 August 2026. It is listed on the What's new page of the PM Surya Ghar portal. In short:

• Why. Portal data showed some vendors holding "Agreement Uploaded" applications that vastly exceed their installation capacity over the last quarter. MNRE calls this "artificial hoarding of applications". The notice opens by noting that fewer than nine months of the scheme remain; the guidelines run it to 31 March 2027.
• Deactivation. 66 vendors, judged on April–June 2026 performance benchmarks, are deactivated for one month.
• What that means. They cannot accept new applications and do not appear on the consumer's vendor-selection page. Portal access stays on only to complete existing installations.
• Review. They get 30 days from the notice date to clear the backlog. Those that improve are reactivated; the rest face a longer deactivation.
• The rule for everyone. Vendors "are advised to avoid retaining consumer applications for more than 60 days without valid reasons and undertake applications based on your ability to execute."

Why it was hard to find

The notice sits on the portal's What's new page, not in the circulars list on mnre.gov.in, which is where most people look. We looked there first and found nothing. The PDF opens through a short-lived link from that page, so cite the page, not the file. Saurenergy and Energetica India reported the same points in late August.

What the scheme guidelines already allow (confirmed)

The MNRE guidelines for PM Surya Ghar give the ministry these powers in writing, with or without a 60-day advisory:

• De-registration and penalties. If installations are substandard, non-functional or not compliant with the guidelines, the registering authority may de-register the vendor or levy penalties, after due notice (clause 7(e)).
• Dormant applications. MNRE may set a period, counted from the date of application, after which an application is deemed dormant. The consumer can reactivate it (clause 8(b)).
• Vendor rating. Every registered vendor gets a rating visible to consumers, based on scale, quality and service (clause 10(d)). The vendor profile also shows performance data on completed and ongoing projects (clause 7(c)).

The 60-day line is new. The power to de-register a vendor after notice is not.

When does the 60-day clock start?

The notice doesn't say. It speaks of "retaining consumer applications", and its analysis counted applications sitting at "Agreement Uploaded". The safe reading is to count from the earliest date you could be held to: the day the application was assigned to you or the day the agreement was uploaded, whichever is older.

Our free application risk checker counts from the application date you enter. It turns amber at 45 days and red at 60. The 60 matches MNRE's notice. The 45 is our own early warning, not an MNRE rule.

Where applications actually get stuck

The portal stages run: registered, feasibility, vendor selected, agreement, installation uploaded, net-meter requested, inspection, commissioning, subsidy. Two of those are timed by law, which helps when the delay isn't yours:

• Feasibility. Under the Electricity (Rights of Consumers) Amendment Rules, 2024, the DISCOM must finish the feasibility study within 15 days, or the proposal is presumed feasible (rule 11(7)). Complete applications up to 10 kW are deemed accepted without a study (rule 11(7A)).
• Commissioning. After the consumer submits the installation certificate, the DISCOM must sign the connection agreement, install the meter and commission the system within 15 days (rule 11(9)).

So the two DISCOM steps the rules time add up to at most 30 days, and for homes up to 10 kW feasibility needs no study at all. If a file crosses 60 days with both DISCOM steps done on time, the delay sits with the vendor or the customer: agreement uploaded but no material, no crew free, or the roof or loan not ready.

Worked example: a 3 kW file in Ahmedabad

A household in Ahmedabad signs for 3 kW. The agreement is uploaded on 1 August 2026.

• Day 45, 15 September 2026: amber. The panels are still in the warehouse because the crew is on bigger jobs.
• Day 60, 30 September 2026: red. If the file is still at "Agreement Uploaded", it is exactly the kind the April to June analysis counted.

What should have happened instead: installation in the second week of August, and the installation certificate submitted the same week. Then commissioning within the 15 days rule 11(9) allows, and the subsidy processed within 15 days of DISCOM approval under clause 6(t) of the guidelines. Run that way, the file is commissioned well before day 45, even with a few days of slack.

At day 45: what to do

• Call the customer. Is the roof ready, is the loan sanctioned, has anything changed?
• Check material for this exact job: DCR modules, inverter, structure.
• Give the file an installation date and put a crew name against it.
• If the hold-up is the DISCOM, write down what is pending, since when and whom you spoke to. That record is your "valid reason".

Before day 60: what to do

• Install, or tell the customer in writing why you can't and when you can.
• If the DISCOM has missed the 15-day feasibility or commissioning timeline, raise a grievance on the national portal. The guidelines set 30 days to resolve it (clause 11). The 2020 consumer-rights rules also make a DISCOM that delays without just cause liable to pay the consumer at least ₹500 a day (Electricity (Rights of Consumers) Rules, 2020, rule 11(12)).
• Stop signing agreements you can't install this quarter. The notice asks vendors to take applications "based on your ability to execute".

A weekly checklist

Every Monday, 20 minutes, owner and operations together:

1. List every open application with its stage and the date it entered that stage.
2. Sort by days pending. Anything over 30 gets a named owner and a date.
3. Anything over 45 gets a call to the customer today.
4. Anything waiting on the DISCOM gets its reference number and the date of the last follow-up written down.
5. Count agreements signed this week against installations done. If signings keep beating installations, slow the selling down.

If you were deactivated

The notice keeps portal access on for existing installations only. Its 30-day review window ran from 24 August to about 23 September 2026, and vendors that did not improve face a longer deactivation. Close the oldest files first, keep every piece of DISCOM correspondence, and install before you sell again.

Telling the customer where the file is

Most customers call because nobody told them anything. Send them the application risk checker with their application date. Then send one WhatsApp line at every stage change: "Aapki file feasibility se aage badh gayi."