Pointing out that the supply of electricity in the State, particularly Chennai, is not up to the mark, the Madras High Court on Thursday directed the Chief Engineer (Commercial), TNEB, to file an affidavit detailing the power position and the steps taken to rectify the low voltage problem in and around Chennai.
The First Bench of Chief Justice M.Y. Eqbal and Justice T.S. Sivagnanam passed the interim order on a public interest litigation petition by S. Vijay of New Washermanpet.
It posted the matter for further hearing on July 3.
In the petition, filed through counsel K. Bharathi, the petitioner cited a report in a Tamil daily on the low voltage problem in and around the city and problems faced by the public.
He said that complaints of low voltage were not being properly attended to by the authorities. The officials did not attend to phone calls. Complainants were not able to contact them on their mobile phones, which were switched off. Since no action was being taken on the complaints, the public suffered. They were unable to use electrical appliances.
Mr. Vijay said that the State government had a constitutional obligation to supply electricity to people properly.
He sought a direction to the authorities to attend to the complaints of low voltage and rectify the problem within a time frame.
The Bench said that it could not be denied that electricity supply in the State in general, and Chennai in particular, was not up to the mark.
There was constant voltage fluctuation in and around the city, which resulted in hardship to the public.
