Another effort by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to get a Federal High Court in Lagos to lift an order of the court restraining the commission from increasing electricity tariff in the country has failed.
NERC yesterday failed to convince Justice Mohammed Idris of the validity of its case as the court struck out a preliminary objection filed by the commission against a suit filed by a lawyer, Toluwani Adebiyi against the proposed hike in electricity tariff across the country.
NERC had filed the objection to challenge the locus standi of the lawyer to file the suit, insisting that the suit disclosed no reasonable cause of action, and that the applicant failed to comply with relevant provisions of the law, as the suit was wrongly instituted.
The commission had also maintained in its application to set aside the interim order that the lawyer misrepresented facts thereby misleading the court to grant same.
However, in his ruling, Justice Idris, who first dealt with the preliminary objection challenging his jurisdiction to hear the case, held that from the processes before him, the defendant (NERC) failed to comply with the mandatory provision of Order 29 Rule 4 of the Federal High Court Civil Procedure Rules to the effect that such objection must be filed within 21 days after service.
Justice Idris also rejected the argument of NERC’s counsel that the provision was discretionary, stating that the operating word “Shall” makes it mandatory.
The court held, “The objection is incompetent and it is hereby struck out having been filed outside the 21 days stipulated by Order 29 Rule 4”.
