Following a power outage at the Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh High Court in Srinagar leading to a blackout for a couple of hours, the High Court has directed the Union Territory administration to resolve the issue immediately and also devise a permanent solution to the problem.
The Division Bench of Justice Atul Sreedharan and Justice Moksha Khajuria Kazmi on Monday recorded that the power failure took place at around 9:30 am and the electricity was yet to be restored at around 11:28 am, when the order was dictated by the Court.
Calling the condition of the High Court’s Srinagar wing as ‘pathetic and unbelievable,’ the Bench directed the Chief Secretary of the Union Territory to pass necessary orders to solve the problem forthwith, as also come up with a permanent solution for the Srinagar Bench of the High Court.
The Bench recorded in its order that the High Court suffered a complete power failure during the Court hours. There were no lights and the air heating unit (AHU) was also not functional. The generator was also not working.
The power outage took place when the Court was hearing a case related to the University of Kashmir.
The High Court noted in its order that the solution may vary from having a separate power line to the High Court, which would not experience any downtime and was also supported by generators of such capacity that can power the entire High Court and also the air heating unit without interruption, in the event the dedicated power supply to the High Court failed.
The Bench listed the matter on top of the list on December 21 for further hearing.
It directed that a copy of this order be furnished to the Chief Secretary of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir under the seal and signature of the Bench Secretary.