KARACHI: The Sindh High Court has issued notices to the provincial as well as civic authorities on a petition against ongoing anti-encroachment drive in Machar Colony to remove encroachments from the land of Circular Railway. The residents of Machar Colony have petitioned the high court seeking stay order against impending demolition of their houses. After preliminary hearing, a two-judge bench, headed by Justice Muhammad Junaid Ghaffar, turned down their request to restrain the anti-encroachment force from demolishing their houses in Machar Colony. It issued notices to the respondent authorities to submit comments until April 19. The bench observed that it couldn’t issue any stay order against the anti-encroachment operation since the land on which the houses of the petitioners were built belong to Pakistan Railways. Meanwhile, another bench put off the hearing of the petition filed by civil rights activists seeking formation of judicial commission to probe over billing of Rs62 billion by the K-Electric. A two-judge bench adjourned the hearing till April 26 when the counsel for the petitioners and K-Electric would forward their arguments over the petition. It was hearing the petition jointly filed by civil rights campaigners and non-government organizations against the power utility for charging excessive bills. The petitioners submitted that power supply remained quite erratic in the city, yet the power utility issued excessive bills to the consumers. The regulatory body had consistently failed to discharge its duties to take action against K-Electric for that illegal act. They said the minister for water & power had asked Nepra to look into the matter and fix new tariff and reimburse excessive charged amount to the consumers but the regulatory body failed to implement. The petitioners requested the court to form a judicial commission to probe the issue of excessive billing.