Satyendra Singh Chauhan is new DERC chairman

NEW DELHI: Justice Satyendra Singh Chauhan of the Allahabad High Court (Lucknow Bench) was on Friday appointed as the new chairperson of the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC), which determines power tariffs for the national capital.

The appointment of the chairperson has been made after a wait of two years and comes at a time when the commission was staring at a possible crisis with its lone member BP Singh scheduled to retire by the end of September.

“The National Capital Territory of Delhi is pleased to appoint Justice Satyendra Singh Chauhan, Allahabad High Court (Lucknow Bench) as chairperson of DERC,” an appointment order said.

A Delhi government official said that Chauhan would retire from the high court on July 4 and would then join as the DERC chairperson.

The post to the chairperson of DERC has been mired in controversy since 2016 after former L-G Najeeb Jung cancelled the appointment of Kirshna Saini as the commission’s chief for not taking his approval. The government had sent as many as three appeals to the L-G to reinstate Saini, but it was rejected every time. Finally, in November 2016, the government issued a fresh order declaring Saini’s appointment “void ab initio.”

The controversy had begun soon after the high court’s judgment declaring L-G the “administrative head” of Delhi.