Read Time: 06 minutes
"It is very unfortunate that the other side is not agreeing to the name decided by the highest court of this country..", SG Mehta told the bench when Senior Advocate AM Singhvi refused to accept the Court's observation that the candidate chose by the President should be appointed.
The Supreme Court today observed that it would appoint a Chairman for the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) on a pro-tem basis as the Delhi Government and Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena were unable to agree upon a name for the same.
Notably, on Monday (July 17), the court had directed the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD) and the Lieutenant Governor to set aside their political differences and come up with a name for the Chairman of the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC).
"Can we allow the DERC to become functional, both these constitutional functionaries may sit together and come up with a name..either you allow them to function, you have to come up from political bickering..", the CJI had orally observed then.
When the matter was taken up today, Senior Advocate AM Singhvi, appearing for the Delhi Government told the bench that the two functionaries could not achieve common ground.
"We tried but we have failed. We went there with three names..and two additional names but we could not agree. This is a constitutional matter.. lets not do something on ad hoc basis. Your lordships may take two or three weeks but decide this matter...dont do anything now..", Singhvi added.
To this the CJI said, "But then there would be no DERC Chairman in the meantime..". This was followed by heated exchanges between the counsels appearing for the concerned parties.
"This concerns the Electricity Act, which is a central legislation..this court may appoint for one term..", suggested SG Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Union of India.
The bench comprising Justices PS Narasimha and Manoj Misra went on to observe that the situation was embarrassing them.
When Singhvi refused to accept an ad hoc appointment, CJI told him that the challenge to the main ordinance was going to be heard by a constitution bench and that will take some time.
After hearing the parties, CJI said, "One thing which we can do is we can appoint somebody on a pro-tem basis..and that person can continue till we decide on the ordinance..we will consult half a dozen people and tell them that we are not going to appoint you for 3 or 5 years..we also have to do some homework..".
The matter will now be taken up on August 4, 2023.
The Supreme Court on July 4, 2023 had issued notice on a plea by GNCTD challenging the decision of Delhi 's Lieutenant Governor to appoint retired Justice Umesh Kumar as chairman of the DERC.
Referring to Section 45(D) of the GNCTD Act, Singhvi had then said, "..this has to be stayed..delhi is governed by such boards..the government gives upto 200 free units of electricity, they want to appoint their own chairman and stop this free electricity..".
Court was further told that the petition raises a point of law regarding the validity of Section 45D, as amended by the latest Ordinance issued by the Centre, which gives overriding powers to the Lieutenant Governor over the elected government.
Case Title: GNCTD Vs UOI
Please Login or Register
