Delhi LG, CM meet to discuss DERC chairperson appointment

Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal held a meeting on Wednesday at the Raj Niwas here to pick a candidate to head the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC), officials said.
Details of the meeting, which went on for nearly an hour, are yet to be known.
Ahead of the meeting, the Delhi government furnished three names before the LG, official sources said.
On Monday, the Supreme Court asked the two constitutional functionaries to rise above “political bickering” and discuss who could head the DERC.
The court will take up the issue for consideration again on Thursday.
The post of DERC chairman assumes significance since the regulator decides the power tariff in the national capital. The position has been vacant since January amid the differences between the AAP dispensation and the LG’s office over the new appointee.
Kejriwal in January recommended the name of retired High Court judge Rajeev Kumar Srivastava for the post. Srivastava last month excused himself from taking charge, citing personal reasons.
The Chief Minister on June 21 recommended the name of retired justice Sangeet Lodha as the new DERC chairperson. Meanwhile, the Centre, through a notification, appointed Justice Umesh Kumar (retd) to the post, officials said.
The AAP dispensation opposed the appointment as “illegal and unconstitutional”, saying “electricity” is a transferred subject falling under the jurisdiction of the elected government of a state or a Union territory.