Power outage hits Sgr HC: DB demands permanent solution

Srinagar, Feb 19: The Srinagar wing of the High Court of J&K and Ladakh was hit by severe power and heating system failures on Monday, leading to a strong reaction from the court terming it “pathetic and unbelievable conditions.”
The Division Bench of Justice Atul Sreedharan and Justice Moksha Khajuria Kazmi expressed concern during a case hearing, noting a complete power outage, malfunctioning generator, lack of lights, and a non-functional air heating unit (AHU) during court hours.
The court found it distressing that such conditions existed in the Srinagar Wing of the High Court, highlighting the power failure lasting from 9:45 a.m. to 11:28 a.m.
The judges stressed the need for a permanent solution to this issue and requested the Chief Secretary of the Union Territory to take immediate action.
The suggested solutions included a dedicated power line for the High Court that experiences no downtime and robust generators capable of powering the entire High Court and AHU without interruption in case of power supply failure. The court has scheduled the matter for further orders on February 21.
An order issued by the HC reads, “During Court hours, the High Court has suffered a complete power failure. The generator is also not working. There are no lights. The air heating unit (AHU) is also not functional. It is pathetic and unbelievable that this is the condition of the Srinagar Wing of the High Court of the High Court of J&K and Ladakh.”
The power failure occurred at about 09:45 am and has still not been restored when this order is passed at about 11.28 am. The matter has gone from bad to worse, the order states.
It stated, There is a permanent solution that is required. This Court requests the Chief Secretary of the Union Territory to pass necessary orders to solve this problem forthwith. The solution may vary from having a separate power line to the High Court which does not experience any downtime and is also supported by generators of such capacity which can provide power to the entire High Court and also the air heating unit without interruption if the dedicated power supply to the High Court fails.