Kriti Agrawal –
The UT administration has finally delivered a copy of the Punjab and Haryana High Court’s stay order on power privatization to the ministry of power and has discussed the future steps with them in detail.
Since the UT began investigating all elements of the directives, the Chandigarh administration is expected to file a petition with the Supreme Court to get the stay lifted.
Sources confirmed that the central government has been pushing this project since day one and that they will have to go further to get the stay vacated because the Government of India is actively involved in this matter and is in regular contact with the senior officers involved in the Chandigarh administration. Furthermore, if necessary, the UT will undoubtedly search for all.
However, a high-level conference will be convened in this respect, at which all of the UT’s senior officers will address the subject, and Punjab governor-cum-UT administrator V P Singh Badnore will be informed of the entire exercise in order to seek his counsel on the topic. After considering all of the options, a final selection will be made.
The UT administration has three alternatives since then i.e., wait for the next hearing in the case, which is scheduled for August, file a review petition in the High Court contesting the stay, or file a writ petition in the Supreme Court contesting the High Court’s order.
According to insiders, the option of going to the Supreme Court may be considered initially, but the final decision will be made following a high-level meeting of officers.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has suspended the UT administration’s electricity privatization project contract process. The administration recently opened all seven businesses’ technical bids and filed the matter to the technical bids evaluation committee.
