DVB asked what it's doing about powercutsThe Delhi High Court has asked the Delhi Vidyut Board (DVB) to specify the latest position on availability of electricity following complaints of frequent power cuts in the Capital.Justice A.D. Singh also asked the agency today to file an affidavit detailing reasons for frequent power breakdowns in various areas and the steps that it was taking to ensure uninterrupted power supply.In his observation during the court proceedings today, the judge also made it clear that he wanted to see concrete results on the issue and not merely an affidavit giving assurances.The court was hearing a petition by Common Cause, filed through its counsel Meera Bhatia, seeking direction to the agency to ensure a regular supply of electricity in the national Capital and to set up special electricity courts to adjudicate the litigations between consumers and the DVB.Common Cause director H.D. Shourie had brought it to the court's notice that even before the summer was to peak, various parts of the Capital had started experiencing frequent powercuts.On a previous occasion, the court had asked for setting up of special courts which, the agency today assured would start functioning shortly.MCD asked for status report on midday mealsThe Delhi High Court has asked the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) for a status report on supply of midday meals to about nine lakh primary school children studying in its 1,800 schools all across Delhi.Justices Arun Kumar and Manmohan Sarin issued the direction on a petition by the All India Lawyers Union (AILU), seeking CBI inquiry into the irregularities in the supply of midday meals.AILU counsel Ashok Aggarwal had alleged that meals worth Rs 3.18 crore were not being supplied according to government specifications as the civic body was supplying fruit-bread instead of eggless cake.Counsel for the civic agency Raman Duggal, however, refuted the allegation saying that only eggless cake (and not the fruitbread variety) was being supplied. A test done by Prevention of Food Adulteration (PFA) Department had also verified the same in a sample test done on March 31 after the issue was raised in the municipal council.DU student allowed to take her annual examsA student of Lady Sri Ram College who was denied permission to take her annual examinations due to shortage of attendance was able to write her first paper today following the Delhi High Court's intervention.Directing the college and university authorities to let Kusum Lata appear for her exams, Justice Cyriac Joseph today said in his interim order that the issue of university rules could be decided later as the permission was only provisional.Dr Surat Singh, counsel for the final-year student of B.A. Hons (English), had said that Kusum Lata was short of only 57 per cent attendance due to an illness and that she had submitted a medical certificate for the same way back in October. Though she had explained the reason to the college authorities, they had refused to give her a roll number for the exams.``Even the dean of students' welfare at the university had recommended my case to be considered sympathetically, but the college authorities refused to pay any heed to it,'' Kusum Lata said in her petition, requesting the court to save her academic year.
