In a major setback to the city government, a division bench comprising Chief Justice of the Delhi high court Dipak Misra and Justice Manmohan on Friday set aside the government’s May 2010 communication which directed the DERC to put on hold its decision on power tariff for 2010-11, saying the act was “unjustified”.
While accepting attorney-general G.E. Vahanvati’s view that the government has no power to pass such direction to a statutory body such as the DERC, the court said, “We hold the communication of the state is absolutely unjustified, unwarranted, untenable and accordingly the same stands quashed.”
Rejecting the argument of the Delhi government that it had issued the direction in public interest, the court made it clear that it was an unwarranted interdiction. The government should have suggested some kind of a matter relating to policy having nexus with public interests but unfortunately that is not so.
The court said, “The concept of public interest appears to be a subterfuge, in fact, totally divorced from the arena of public interest.”
“Any encroachment is not permissible. The state government could have issued only policy direction and not pre-emptory directions like it did,” the court said and set aside the government’s May 2010 communication to DERC.