The Jammu and Kashmir High Court, in a rare reprimand, on Monday directed the Lieutenant Governor’s administration to ensure electricity supply during court hours, following a major power failure, and has listed the case for February 21.
A Division Bench comprising Justices Atul Sreedharan and Moksha Khajuria Kazmi observed that during court hours the High Court in Srinagar suffered “a complete power failure”. “The generator is also not working. There are no lights. The air heating unit [AHU] is also not functional,“ the Bench said.
The power crisis came amid a fresh spell of cold weather on Monday, with upper reaches receiving fresh snowfall and the plains torrential rainfall.
The Bench described the electricity scenario on the court premises as “pathetic and unbelievable”. “This is the condition of Srinagar wing of the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh,” the court observed.
The court said there was a power failure from 9.45 a.m. and was still not restored till 11.28 a.m., when the court passed the order.
Permanent solution
“The matter has gone from bad to worse. There is a permanent solution that is required,” the court observed.
It asked the Chief Secretary to pass necessary orders “to solve this problem forthwith”.
“The solution may vary from having a separate power line to the High Court, which does not experience any downtime and also supported by generators of such capacity which can power the entire High Court and also the air heating unit without interruption in the event of the dedicated power supply to the High Court fails,” the court said.
The matter was listed again for February 21.
Kashmir is going through a major electricity crisis this year. Consumers accused the Jammu and Kashmir Power Development Department of resorting to unscheduled prolonged power cuts. The wet and windy weather, which started on Monday, further deteriorated the power scenario in the Valley.
