Chandigarh, Feb. 21 -- The Punjab and Haryana high court on Friday restrained the Punjab government from selling properties of the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL), including 50 acres of land in Patiala, till further hearing in a pending public interest litigation (PIL). The high court bench of justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra and justice Rohit Kapoor acted on an application by the petitioner, submitting that the state had decided on February 6 to sell PSPCL land in Patiala's Badungar village under the Optimum Use of Vacant Government Land scheme, even as the PIL challenging such alienation of PSPCL assets was already pending before the court. The PIL, filed in January by one Rajbir Singh, alleges that PSPCL had been pushed into a severe financial crisis due to unpaid electricity dues and pending subsidy payments from the state government totalling over Rs.12,500 crore, and that selling its valuable public assets to tide over the crisis is unjustified when recoverable dues remain outstanding. On this plea, the high court on January 12 had sought responses from the Punjab government and PSPCL on the plea, which claims that the state government departments owe Rs.2,582.24 crore in electricity dues, apart from power subsidy arrears exceeding Rs.10,000 crore. "...we are of the view that any transfer of land must await the consideration of cause, on the next date fixed in the matter. In such circumstances, till the next date fixed in the matter, none of the properties of PSPCL would be alienated," the court ordered on Friday, while posting the matter for hearing on February 24. The PIL had contended that the state despite being a consumer "like any other" failed to discharge its "moral, ethical and statutory obligation" to pay electricity charges, thereby adversely affecting PSPCL's finances. Instead of exercising its statutory powers under Section 56 of the Electricity Act, 2003, the PSPCL has been compelled to raise loans running into hundreds of crores merely to meet routine operational expenses such as salaries, pensions and power purchases, the PIL had alleged, seeking directions to PSPCL to immediately recover the default amount, along with interest and penalty from defaulting government departments. Directions were also sought to disconnect electricity supply to such departments after completing the due procedure and further demanded that the state government be asked to pay the power subsidy bill of approximately Rs.10,000 crore. The PIL had questioned plans to sell valuable public assets of PSPCL. "Public properties are long-term national assets held in trust for future generations and cannot be sold for short-term fiscal management, particularly when recoverable dues of nearly equal magnitude remain unpaid by the state itself," the petition underlined, raising its concerns over lands acquired from farmers and landowners for specific public purposes, which it claimed is proposed to be sold for "commercial exploitation"....