Chief minister Sheila Dikshit on Saturday played down the Delhi high court rap to the city government for its direction to Delhi Electricity Regulat-ory Commission (DERC) on tariff policy. She was inaugurating a power sub-station in the city. Replying to a query on high court’s displeasure over use of some words in the Delhi government’s
direction to the DERC, Ms Dikshit told reporters “It’s okay”. “The court has said so. I talked to the chief secretary. The court said these words should not have been used, that’s what the chief secretary has told me. It is correct,” she remarked.
The city government had hit the headlines last year when it stalled the DERC from announcing the new tariff policy for the consumers. The matter later reached the high court, which in its observations showed displeasure to government’s attempt to intervene in the functioning of the DERC, an autonomous body.
“We hold the communication of the state is absolutely unjustified, unwarranted, untenable and accordingly the same stands quashed,” a division bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Manmohan had decreed. The bench had also accepted Attorney General G.E. Vahanvati’s view that Delhi government had no power as such to issue direction to a statutory body like DERC.
The DERC could not come up with the tariff policy last year due to government intervention. It later came to light that the DERC was going to announce lower power tariff in the light of the discoms earning decent profits and sitting on cash reserve.
Since then the DERC chairman and one member have retired and now the autonomous body is left with just one member.