Taking serious note of the disrupted power supply in large parts of Chandigarh, the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Tuesday, taking suo motu cognizance, asked the chief engineer, Chandigarh to appear before it on February 23.
The division bench of Justice Ajay Tewari and Justice Pankaj Jain ordered the chief engineer of the Chandigarh administration to apprise the court about the measures taken to alleviate the electricity crisis in Chandigarh.
The bench in the order said, “It has been brought to our notice that power supply to large parts of the city of Chandigarh has been disrupted. In the circumstances, we are constrained to take up this matter on the judicial side and have consequently requested the learned Senior Standing Counsel, UT, Chandigarh to apprise us of the arrangements which the administration is making to ensure that undue hardship is not caused to the residents of the city.”
Before the Court, Anil Mehta, senior standing counsel, Chandigarh, apprised the bench that the power failure is on account of acts of sabotage by the striking employees. The UT senior counsel further submitted before the bench that a request was made by the UT administration to get officials from the states of Punjab and Haryana to tide over this crisis. The latest information that he received is that Punjab has expressed its inability to send any person on deputation. He is not yet aware of the response of Haryana, told the UT counsel.
On it the bench said, “This Court cannot be oblivious of the fact that disruption of electricity supply is not only affecting the ordinary residents but may affect institutions like hospitals where patients may be on ventilators and other life support systems. Apart from that, there are online examinations and classes which students are taking. In many cases, virtual hearing has been disrupted in this court also because lawyers are not able to appear due to the fact that there is no electricity in their offices. In such situations, the disruption of electricity supply can cause irrevocable damage.”
As per reports, many areas in the Chandigarh faced disruption in power supply as employees of the Electricity Department went on a three-day strike in protest against the privatisation of the department.
