Expressing its displeasure over the conduct of the discoms and the city government and holding them responsible for the delay in fixing the power tariff for 2010-11, the Delhi high court on Monday directed the DERC to proceed with the same soon.
This order of the court could probably put an end to the controversy arising out of DERC’s approval of the tariff and Delhi government’s direction to DERC not to release the final order.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice of the Delhi HC Dipak Misra and Justice Sanjiv Khanna said, “The Commission under the 2003 Act is required to deal with the aspect of tariff determination with intellectual integrity, transparent functionalism and normative objectivity and not act in a manner by which its functioning invites doubt with regard to its credibility.”
The court passed the order after hearing a PIL filed by Nand Kishore Garg, accusing the government of succumbing to pressure from the discoms and sitting on a combined cash profit of over `300 crore per month and it was time to reduce the power tariff rates. The PIL charges the government with violating the Electricity Act.
The HC said, “We will be failing in our duty if we do not express our views on the conduct of the distribution companies. A distribution company is not an illiterate litigant who seeks redressal of his grievances at any stage and before any forum. They are guided by their law officers and are expected to know how to conduct themselves.”
Pulling up the Delhi government for succumbing to the pressure of the discoms, the HC said, it had travelled beyond its power by issuing a direction purported to have been so done in exercise of power under the DERC Act. The government totally misdirected itself at the instance of the distribution companies.