Bureaucrat, retired judge appointed MERC members

Faced with criticism over delays in disposal of cases by power sector regulator Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC), Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday cleared the appointment of retired district judge Iqbal Bohari and 1985-batch IAS officer Mukesh Khullar as members of the regulatory body.

While Bohari was earlier the principal judge at the Nagpur family court, Khullar was the Additional Chief Secretary, Personnel, in the state government. They will be sworn in on Wednesday. Khullar will continue to be on the state government’s payroll till his retirement in February 2019.

The positions had been vacant since May after the retirement of senior members Deepak Lad and Aziz Khan. The delay in the appointment had led to pendency in hearings, leading to criticism among consumer organisations.

Both Lad and Khan had recused themselves from fresh hearings in March owing to their impending retirement. Even as chairperson Anand Kulkarni continued with the hearings, consumer organisations had approached the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court challenging the single-member panel hearings. The bench ordered an interim stay and mandated that at least two members be present for the hearings.

The appointment was delayed further after a division bench of Justice J Chelameswar and Sanjay Kishan Kaul of the Supreme Court ordered all states to appoint a judiciary member to their electricity regulatory commissions in April. “It is mandatory that there should be a person of law as a member of the commission, which requires a person, who is, or has been holding a judicial office or is a person possessing professional qualifications with substantial experience in the practice of law, who has the requisite qualifications to have been appointed as a judge of the High Court or a District Judge,” said the bench.

The Electricity Act also specifies that the commission must have a technical expert among the members. Now, with two former administrative officers and one judiciary member in MERC, the regulatory body lacks a technical expert. Earlier, Lad was a director with the state electricity distribution company. Senior sources said that the commission may rope in a technical expert in an advisory capacity. The scrutiny committee headed by energy secretary Arvind Singh had recommended the names of two retired judges and two bureaucrats for the positions. Sunil Porwal, Additional Chief Secretary, Industries, was also in the running but since Khullar has earlier served as the energy secretary, he got the nod.