HC to decide if DERC tariff order is valid
Utkarsh Anand
Mon May 23 2011, 00:26 hrs New Delhi:

The Delhi High Court will decide on Monday whether the tariff order passed by the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) last year is valid.

The regulatory body had sought to lower the electricity rates after noting a reported surplus of Rs 3,577 crore with the three power distribution companies (discoms) — NDPL, BSES Yamuna and Rajdhani.

A division bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Sanjiv Khanna will decide on the ratification and the validity of the impugned order, passed by former DERC chairman Berjinder Singh before he left the office in September 2010.

Petitioner Nand Kishore Garg claimed that the DERC had formulated the tariff plan for 2010-2011 after due consultation between the members. He added that the order was stalled after the Delhi government, traversing beyond its statutory powers, wrote to the DERC in May 2010 asking it to fall in line with the National Tariff Policy and not issue an order.

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After Singh’s retirement, the other two members of the DERC had written to the government mentioning that the former chairman’s proposal to lower the tariff was his “personal opinion”.

“The personal opinion of the former chairman indicated that discoms had a surplus of about Rs 300 crore per month, and were overcharging consumers. But there is no such surplus and the reality is that consumers in Delhi have actually been paying less than what they were obliged to...,” DERC wrote.

The petitioner has challenged the interdiction by the government, calling it as illegal and also sought court orders to make public and notify the first tariff order prepared by the DERC in public interest.

In February, while directing the DERC not to pass a fresh tariff order without the court’s permission, the bench had said the government had no business interfering with the functioning of the power tariff regulator and it could not issue any “directive” to the Commission.