The North Delhi Power Ltd (NDPL) on Friday approached the Delhi high court for a direction to the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) to determine the tariff for the financial year 2010-11.
In its application filed before a division bench comprising Chief Justice of the Delhi high court Dipak Misra and Justice Manmohan, the NDPL said that due to the prolonged litigation, NDPL, a joint venture of TATA power company and the Delhi government, has been facing a financial crisis.
After hearing the plea, the division bench issued a notice to the petitioner for a response by January 21.
The court was hearing a PIL, which accused the government of succumbing to pressure from discoms. According to the company, about 60-70 per cent of finance goes towards power distribution and 10-12 per cent goes towards maintenance, salaries of staff and administrative expenses.
Earlier, the bench had rapped the city government and the DERC for their ongoing tussle over fixing of new power tariff.
Attorney General G.E. Vahanvati, who assisted the court, had earlier said that the state government had no power to interfere with a decision taken by DERC and could only issue guidelines which the commission could consider.
The bench had then directed the members of the DERC to convene a meeting and intimate it about their decision over the current year’s approved tariff while making it clear that the commission would inform if there was any dissenting opinion by any of its members.