The Supreme Court on Monday said that Justice Jayant Nath shall continue to serve as Chairman of the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC), notwithstanding the fact that he has crossed the retirement age of 65.
A Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra ordered the extension of Justice Nath's tenure.
The former Delhi High Court judge was temporarily appointed as Chairperson of DERC on July 20, 2023 by the Supreme Court after it was informed that no consensus could be reached between the Delhi government and the Lieutenant Governor (LG) on who should head the DERC.
The order was passed on a plea by the Delhi government challenging the appointment of former Allahabad High Court judge Justice Umesh Kumar to the post.
The plea underlined that Justice Kumar's appointment was made on the basis of the Delhi Services Ordinance, which was under challenge on ground that it flouts the Supreme Court's Constitution Bench judgment on control of services in Delhi.
On July 4, 2023, the Court had deferred the swearing-in of Justice Kumar.
During a subsequent hearing on July 17, 2023 the top court had urged the LG and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government to jointly suggest a name for the Chairperson.
However, since the two functionaries could not arrive at a consensus on this issue, the Court decided to appoint an ad hoc Chairperson.