MADURAI: A division bench of the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court, on Thursday, stayed a recent order passed by a single judge of the court restraining Tamil Nadu Electricity Regulatory Commission (TNERC) from passing final orders on tariff revision petitions filed by TANGEDCO, TANTRANSCO and SLDC, till its Member-Legal post is filled.
The division bench, comprising justices SS Sundar and S Srimathy, passed the interim order on the appeals filed by the State government and TNERC challenging the single judge’s order. The single judge had passed the order on August 24, 2022, on a batch of petitions filed by Tamil Nadu Spinning Mills Association and two others seeking a direction to prevent TNERC from hearing the tariff revision petitions until a Member-Legal is appointed, since the previous Member-Legal retired on May 5, 2022.
Even though the presence of a Member-Legal is not mandatory to hear the petitions, the Supreme Court’s order mandating the presence of a Member-Legal cannot be ignored, the single judge had opined and allowed TNERC to hear the tariff petitions but restrained it from passing final orders till a Member-Legal is appointed.
However, the senior counsel P Wilson, appearing on behalf of TNERC in the appeal, argued that tariff fixation is a regulatory matter and thus a Member-Legal is not required for taking decision on the same. The single judge should not have heard the petitions without making the TANGEDCO, TANTRANSCO and SLDC as parties in the case, he further added.
Moreover, the petitions were in the nature of public interest litigations and ought to have been heard by a division bench and not a single judge, Wilson said. “TANGEDCO is suffering a loss of `13,407 crore per annum and if tariff is not fixed, there will be a further loss of Rs 1,500 crore per month.
The Union government recently banned the purchase of electricity from neighbouring states by TN and this has serious ramifications if the present situation continues,” he added.
Govt ordered to set up panel to ensure physical edu in schools
Chennai: The First Bench of the Madras High Court, comprising Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice N Mala, has ordered TN government to constitute a committee to monitor and ensure that physical education is given due importance and has requisite infrastructure in all the schools. The committee, headed by the secretary of school education department, should be formed in a month.
The order was passed on a petition filed by Dr PR Subashchandran. In the petition, he said the government did not pay enough attention to physical education as a subject in schools, resulting in inadequate infrastructure and lack of physical education teachers. During the hearing, the government submitted that out of the 1,434 schools in Chennai, 367 did not have playgrounds but used the grounds belonging to the municipal corporation.
YouTuber says he stands by his statement against higher judiciary
Madurai: Appearing before the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court in the suo motu contempt proceedings initiated against him for his controversial remarks against the higher judiciary, YouTuber ‘Savukku’ Shankar on Thursday said he stood by his statement. Shankar, in his interview on a YouTube channel on July 22, had reportedly stated that “the entire higher judiciary is riddled with corruption”. Following this, a Special Bench comprising Justices GR Swaminathan and B Pugalendhi had issued show-cause notice to him on August 4, as to why criminal contempt proceedings should not be initiated against him. ENS