The Allahabad High Court has directed the power department to revisit its decision to suspend a junior engineer following a brief electricity outage during a minister’s visit in Moradabad.
Justice Saurabh Shyam Shamshery, while disposing of a writ petition filed by junior engineer Lalit Kumar, observed that the suspension appeared to have been imposed merely to “cover up things,” without clearly attributing responsibility to the officer.
The incident occurred on July 20 when a power cut disrupted a programme attended by the Uttar Pradesh energy minister in Moradabad. The outage lasted about ten minutes before supply was restored. Following the disruption, authorities suspended Lalit Kumar, prompting him to challenge the order before the High Court.
Kumar’s counsel argued that the suspension was arbitrary, pointing out that the order did not specify any individual responsibility and was passed only to shield departmental shortcomings.
During the proceedings, counsel for the electricity department informed the court that the managing director of Pashchimanchal Vidyut Vitran Nigam would reconsider the suspension. Taking note of this, the High Court disposed of the matter with directions for the department to review the case afresh.
