NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday appointed an ad hoc chief of the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) after the Delhi government and the L-G submitted that they failed to reach a consensus on the chairperson’s name.
“Can you not between all of you pick up one judge for DERC? This is embarrassing for us; we should not be doing this…” remarked CJI DY Chandrachud. Stating that DERC is currently without a chief, a bench also comprising justices PS Narasimha and Manoj Mishra said, “It is sad that nobody cares about the institution and individually you fight.”
The bench was initially of the view that Justice Umesh Kumar notified by the President can be intimated that his appointment would be subject to further directions of the top court. But it later decided to appoint a candidate on a pro tem basis, saying the issue required a detailed hearing.
“We can appoint somebody on a pro tem basis so that we request him to do this until someone takes over. We will not look at either list. We will take a call ourselves now,” the CJI said. In its plea, the Delhi government, apart from quashing the notification of appointing Justice Kumar as chairperson, also challenged the constitutionality of Section 45D of the GNCTD (Amendment) Ordinance, 2023 based on which the appointment was made. Section 45D enables President the competent authority to appoint any officer-bearer for any authority, a broad commission or any statutory body for the GNCTD.