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36. It will be useful to give here a short background as to how the electricity was being received at the Delhi Vidyut Board (sub-station) installed on the ground floor of Uphaar Cinema and how it was transmitted from the sub-station to the consumers. The power to the sub-station is received from the 33/11 KV grid sub-station installed at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences via Green Park main and K-84 sub-stations. Power is received on the HT panels at 11000 Volts from where it is divided into two channels, one is leading to 1000 KVA DVB transformer and the other goes to 500 KVA Uphaar Cinema transformer. In this petition, we are only concerned with the 1000 KVA DVB transformer. At both the transformers, 11000 volts power supply is stepped down to 440 volts on LT side. The 440 volts power supply from the DVB transformer goes to LT panel in the switch gear room for onward distribution to the adjoining locality of Green Park Extension, commercial complex and to a few tenants in the Uphaar Cinema building. From Uphaar Cinema transformer the 440 volts power supply is taken to the LT panels of the Cinema located in the basement from where it is supplied to various points inside the cinema. DVB sub-station, as already mentioned above, is required to be maintained by the Delhi Vidyut Board. As stated above, earlier the DVB had installed a transformer of 750 KVA in its sub-station but after the fire in their transformer sometimes in 1989, the Delhi Vidyut Board augmented the power supply to the sub-station and installed 1000 KVA transformer in July, 1989. In terms of Rule 63 of the Indian Electricity Rules, before making an application to the Inspector for permission to commence or re-commence supply after an installation has been disconnected for one year and above at high or extra high voltage to any person, the supplier shall ensure that the high or extra high electricity supply lines or apparatus belonging to him are placed in position properly joined and duly completed and examined. The supply of energy shall not be commenced by the supplier unless and until the Inspector is satisfied that the provisions of Rules 65 to 69 both inclusive have been complied with and the approval in writing of the Inspector had been obtained by him. The owner of any high or extra high installation shall before making an application to the restoration of approval or addition thereto test every high or extra high voltage circuit or additions thereto, other than an overhead line, and satisfy himself that they withstand the application of the testing voltage set out in Rule 65(i) and duly record results of such tests and forward to the Inspector. In cases where the owner makes addition and alterations to his installation, he shall not connect to the supply. It is thus clear that when the Delhi Vidyut Board had installed 1000 KVA transformer in place of 750 KVA installed earlier, it was required to obtain written approval of the Electrical Inspector apparatus or electric supply lines, comprising the said alterations or additions unless and until such alterations or additions are approved in writing by the Inspector. Under the Rules, the transformer must have relays, cable box, earthing, etc. and it was also required to provide a kerb so that the leaking oil does not go out of the transformer room. Despite mandatory provisions of Rules 65 to 69 and despite the requirement of approval of the Inspector in writing before installation of the transformer, nothing has been placed on record to show that any such approval was ever taken by the Delhi Vidyut Board at the time of installation of 1000 KVA transformer in July, 1989. Though it is the contention of learned counsel for the Delhi Vidyut Board that relays were provided but they were stolen, however, despite our repeated querries, no record had been produced to show that relays were ever issued by the store for installing the same in the transformer and the same were stolen nor any report was ever lodged about the theft of these relays.

38. In his statement recorded under Section 161 of the Code of Criminal Procedure Mr.P.C.Bhardwaj, Assistant Engineer DVB has stated that he was posted at R.K.Puram sub-station from October, 1994 to June, 1997 when he was suspended. He states that in addition to the duty of continuity of supply and system improvement for sub-stations, the Assistant Engineer has to do the duty of preventive maintenance of sub-stations. He states that as per norms, the Assistant Engineer is required to carry out inspection of every transformer under him once in a year, Inspector carries out inspection once in a month and Superintendent at sub-station once in three months. He states that though he joined the sub-station in October, 1994, he did not carry out inspection of the sub-station located on the ground floor of Uphaar Cinema in 1995 as the date i.e. 27th February, 1995 which was fixed for inspection was declared a Gazetted holiday. He states that in 1996 he carried out inspection on 14th May, 1996 and in 1997 the inspection was carried out on 22nd January, 1997. He states that during the inspection in 1997 everything was found correct except that DC relays (protection relays) were missing. He further states that the protection system was not available at DVB transformer at Uphaar Cinema as protection relays were stolen from there and he pointed out the non-availability of the protection system in the check list dated 22nd January, 1997. He further stated that despite the protection relays having not been provided, protection system was available at All India Institute of Medical Sciences grid sub-station for the safety of DVB transformer at Uphaar Cinema in case of over current and abnormality in the electric supply.

(e) All the non-current carrying metals associated with the DVB sub-station i.e. Transformer, H.T. Breakers etc. had not been effectively earthed to a grounding system or mat which will limit the touch and stop potential to tolerable values and maintain the resistance of the earth connection to such a value as to make operation of the protective device effective.

[ Violation of 67 (1) of I.E. Rules, 1956] In brief, the state of affairs at the site of DVB transformer clearly indicates that standards prescribed for such a power installation system in IE Act/Rules and bids have not been adhered to at all. This further reflects on the functioning of the Board.

64. It is submitted that during load shedding from 3.55 pm to 4.55 pm (for one hour) Uphaar Cinema had operated their generator. It is possible that the generator set or some foreign element interacted after the load shedding at 4.55 pm when DVB supply was restored and the generator was in operation. It was mentioned by Shri K.V. Singh XEN PWD who submitted to the Naresh Kumar Committee that earth strips were lying in the transformer room but the joint in the earth strip was not proper and the earth connections to the neutral was also broken. It is submitted that after a fire, the connections to earth and neutral might have been loosened. As it is evident that earthing effectively completed its role which tripped the system within prescribed lime setting of 0.3 second from AIIMS grid, it is submitted that after having one hour load shedding from 3.55 pm to 4.55 pm when the load of the Uphaar Cinema was being supplied by their own generator, at about 4.55 pm the sparking/arcing/heating reportedly developed. If the transformer end and its socket lead had not shown any fault/arcing/sparking/heating during more than 4 hours from 11.30 am to 3.55 pm then how could the same have developed when the load was much less in the evening? It is submitted that there must have been some other external factors which created the alleged arcing/sparking/heating when the DVB supply was resumed, if at all it happened. The contemporaneous record kept at AIIMS grid shows that at 5.00 pm, the system was functioning normally.