Clarify if Cabinet decided to offer 50% waiver: HC

The court also directed the L-G to not take any action on the waiver while the matter was before court.

The court was hearing a PIL filed by advocate Vivek Narayan Sharma against the AAP government’s decision to waive electricity bills and close cases against bill defaulters.

The plea had stated that any such waiver would “encourage unlawful behaviour” and would amount to “rewarding breaking of law”.  The plea also said the decision was unfair towards law-abiding citizens who had continued to pay “inflated bills”.

The PIL also claimed that the decision was “irrational, politically motivated and in violation of Article 14 and Directive Principle of State Policy of the Constitution”.

The court of acting Chief Justice Badar Durrez Ahmad and Justice Siddharth Mridul asked government standing counsel Zubeda Begum to submit a reply after noting that the documents submitted before the court were not clear on whether the Cabinet had actually held a meeting on the issue.

“On paper, there doesn’t seem to be a Cabinet decision,” the court said.

During arguments, Sharma said the L-G had recently stated that all major decisions of the AAP Cabinet will be continued.

The lawyer said former UD minister Manish Sisodia had announced the 50 per cent waiver at a press conference.

“Media report is irrelevant. Show us the documents as to when the decision was taken. Was there a Cabinet meeting on this issue after February 10?” the court said.

Begum informed the court that the file notings indicated that there was a notice for the council of ministers to meet and discuss the matter, but she did not know whether the discussion had taken place.

In a statement on February 12, the AAP government had announced a “50 per cent relief on pending arrears of those electricity consumers in the capital who had opposed their inflated bills and had in protest against these inflated bills refused their payment between October 2012 and May 2013”. The statement said the Power department has a list of 24,036 people who had resisted payment of their inflated bills.

The government had also announced that it would consider the closure of theft cases registered against some consumers during the Congress government’s tenure.