HC stays MERC’s move to stop recording hearings

Mumbai: In a major jolt to Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC), the Nagpur bench of Bombay high court has stayed its decision to stop recording its hearings and destroy the existing recordings. A public interest litigation (PIL) was filed against this decision by activist Anil Wadpalliwar.

MERC chairman Anand Kulkarni, I.M. Bohari and Mukesh Khullar unanimously passed a resolution on September 4 to not record MERC hearings anymore and destroy the recordings of past hearings. No reason was given for this decision.

Contrary to this, the MERC bench headed by V.P. Raja had, on June 14, 2013, opined that transparency of the hearing would be compromised because of lack of recordings. “It violates the spirit and letter of Section 86(3) of Indian Electricity Act, 2003,” the commission had stated.

Section 78 of Conduct of Business Regulations of MERC, 2004, states that all documents pertaining to the hearings should be indexed and be provided to citizens on payment of a fee. Clearly, the MERC resolution was against the letter and spirit of this Section.

The Supreme Court on September 26, 2018, pushed for greater transparency in the judicial system by setting the stage for live-streaming of court proceedings of cases of constitutional importance.

The court directed the centre to frame rules for this and said the project would be carried out in phases.

Shreerang Bhandarkar, the advocate of the petitioner, pointed out all these facts before the division bench of Justice Bhushan Dharmad-hikari and Justice M.G. Giratkar.

MERC counsel Sudhir Puranik tried to justify the commission’s resolution but the court did not agree with him. He then appealed for a status quo instead of a stay but even this plea was rejected.