Chennai: A PIL has been filed in the Madras high court, seeking a direction to the authorities to restrain the proposed hike in power tariff.
The first bench, comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice M. Sathyanaraynan, ordered notice to the Tamil Nadu Electricity Regulatory Commission (TNERC), Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation Ltd (TANGEDCO) and Tamil Nadu Transmission Corporation Ltd (TANTRANSCO) and file reply within three weeks.
The petitioner, senior advocate R. Gandhi, submitted that TNERC had issued notice on its website on September 23, 2014 seeking public opinion on its proposal to hike tariff on retail sale of electricity and transmission charges.
After the Electricity Act, 2003 came into force, power tariff had been decided by the state governments. Since then, the state government had revised the tariff in June 2003, July 2010, March 2012 and June 2013.
While so, the TNERC had decided to hike the tariff again now. Its methodology of increasing retail tariff and transmission charge had been set aside by the appellate tribunal for electricity (APTEL) in September 2013.
The tribunal had given specific directions to the state to fix the tariff and rectify the defects before November 2014.
However, without adhering to the guidelines and following the ‘obsolete technology’ TNERC had proposed the hike, the petitioner stated.
The Supreme Court had made it clear judicial persons needed to be appointed as chairpersons of the commissions.
The petition also alleged malpractices like purchasing high-cost power which had caused loss of Rs 3,022 crore during 2013-2014.
The proposed hike was against law. Hence, he sought a direction to the authorities to halt the process.
Meanwhile, a petition has been filed in the Madras high court seeking a direction to the authorities to provide adequate infrastructure in court.
The petitioner, advocate V. Vasanthakumar, also sought the authorities to file action taken report before the court in connection with the SC order in Salem Advocate Bar Association vs Union of India reported in 2005.
The pending files were dumped in the court due to lack of efficient filing system and even basic amenities were not available. The first bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice M. Sathyanarayanan, ordered notice to the Central and state governments.
