The Delhi High Court ordered lieutenant Najeeb Jung not to take any further steps and also to file an affidavit on former AAP government’s decision to give 50 per cent subsidy on electricity bills to 24,036 consumers, who participated in the bijli satyagraha.
The stay order came as the court said that there ‘no clarity’ on whether the Delhi cabinet had taken a decision to implement the subsidy as claimed by the petitioner Vivek Sharma.
Acting Chief Justice BD Ahmed and Justice Sidharth Mridul asked Jung not to take any further decision on waiver of power bills and posted the matter for 21 February.
The court also directed the Delhi government to clarify whether the cabinet has taken any decision on waiver of pending electricity bills. ‘You (the government) file a short affidavit. We thought there was no meeting of the cabinet in this regard. But there is no clarity on this. Get proper instruction on whether cabinet decision has been taken or not,’ the court said.
The order came in response to a PIL filed by advocate Vivek Narayan Sharma, who was seeking withdrawal of the Delhi government’s decision of closing power theft cases registered against 2,508 consumers last year. The plea claimed that the AAP and its leaders were enticing the public to follow no rule and the estimated loss to public exchequer was around Rs 6 crore. ‘Such action of the government was like sponsoring and abetting criminal/terrorism acts and acts against rule of law and Constitution,’ the petitioner claimed in his plea.
On 12 February, just two days before resigning from office, the AAP government had announced it would provide 50 per cent waiver on pending bills of 24,036 people and waive off the penalties. From October 2012 to December 2013 many consumers in Delhi stopped paying their power bills. During this period, the authorities disconnected a total of 2,508 electricity meters for non-payment of bills and these people started to steal power.