The Meghalaya High Court has disposed of a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) against the arbitrary disconnection of electricity supply by the Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited and the Meghalaya Power Distribution Corporation Limited to entire villages on account of a few villagers defaulting in paying their dues.
The petition is moved by the petitioner-in-person, who introduced himself as a spokesperson of a political party.
A. Kumar, Advocate-General appearing for all the respondents, including the State, submitted that there has been no disconnection of electricity of the kind complained of in the petition.
According to the respondents, transformers in several places in the South Garo Hills District, including at Kalibari, were destroyed due to lightning strikes or otherwise damaged in the usual course and required repair or replacement.
According to the State, the work may have taken some time but in most places the transformers have been repaired or new transformers have been put in place and the electricity supply to the villages restored.
In the light of the categorical submission on behalf of the respondents that no coercive action has been taken against the collective for the default in payment on the part of a few, the Division Bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice W. Diengdoh held that nothing remains of the petition and accordingly disposed it.