New Delhi:
The Delhi High Court today stayed the Aam Aadmi Party cabinet's decision to provide 50 per cent waiver to power bill defaulters who did not pay for electricity between October 2012 and April 2013.
The decision was announced by Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP on February 12, two days before he and his cabinet resigned after the BJP and the Congress foiled their plans to introduce the anti-graft Jan Lokpal Bill in the Delhi Assembly.
While making the announcement, AAP had said it would supply six crores to cover the massive discount.
The High Court's decision today came in response to a Public Interest Litigation or PIL that challenged the subsidy given by the then AAP government and also alleged that the decision discriminated against those who paid their bills on time.
In an earlier hearing on February 19, the court had directed the standing counsel for the Delhi government to seek instructions and file an affidavit indicating the actual position regarding the proposal. It had added that there was "no clarity" on whether the Delhi cabinet had taken a decision to implement the subsidy as claimed by the petitioner.
While announcing the waiver, senior AAP leader Manish Sisodia had said that Delhi residents who supported the party's campaign against allegedly inflated power prices would be given 50% subsidy and would be charged no penalty.
In October 2012, AAP had urged residents of Delhi to state in writing that they would not pay their water and power bills to protest against over-priced utilities. 10 lakh people signed the petition; 24,000 defaulted on their bills.
Within days of taking office, Mr Kejriwal halved the prices of power. He has targeted two power-distribution companies, both backed by Anil Ambani's Reliance Infra Group, demanding that their licenses be cancelled. The firms have said a cash crunch has left them unable to purchase power from state-run electricity producers.