Make tariff hike order public: HC to power discom

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday directed the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) to make public its order affecting a 26% hike in Delhi power tariff with effect from July 1.

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday directed the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) to make public its order affecting a 26% hike in Delhi power tariff with effect from July 1.

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A bench of acting chief justice AK Sikri and justice Anil Kumar directed DERC lawyer Meet Malhotra to ensure that the order, with the complete justification for the hike, be put on the commission's website.

The DERC has also been asked to file an affidavit within two weeks.

The order came on a PIL by resident's body United RWAs Joint Action, which complained that the hike was implemented without an effective and written order and termed it "illegal and unjustified".

"How can the order be implemented in this fashion? The hike should be stayed till there is a proper written order, which is made public with all the justification," the petitioner's lawyer argued.

The court, in December last year, had threatened to quash the entire exercise regarding fixing power tariff for the Capital and slammed the way Delhi government and DERC were going about with the process.

The RWAs accused the government of succumbing to pressure from power discoms and "prohibiting release of new tariff approved by DERC" on April 29, 2010.

The PIL said the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission told the government that the discoms were sitting on a combined cash profit of over R300 crore per month and it was time to reduce the power rates by 25% rather than hiking it.