CHENNAI: A petition has been filed in the Madras High Court seeking orders to quash a GO of TN government that mandated linking Aadhaar with electricity consumer number.
The public interest litigation (PIL) petition was filed by advocate ML Ravi, founder of Desiya Makkal Katchi. When it came up before the first bench headed by Acting CJ T Raja, the petitioner sought adjournment for Thursday, which the bench granted.
The petitioner said Tangedco issued the GO dated October 6, 2022 for authentication of service in its database to identify schemes/services of electricity consumers. The Aadhaar authentication can be done for only one dwelling/individual unit.
An owner, however, might have obtained a connection in their name for all the dwelling units in a building, where individual houses might have been given on lease or tenancy. Some owners are non-resident Indians, who do not have Aadhaar card. If the tenancy changes, getting new connection in the name of a new occupant is time consuming and involve procedural difficulties, Ravi said in the petition.
The GO is arbitrary, malafide, unreasonable, unfair and against the public interest. So, an interim order should be passed directing the respondents not to insist on linking Aadhaar with power service consumer number.