Three months ahead of retirement Raj Pratap Singh (IAS:1983:UP) has sought VRS from the service to take oath to the post of Chairman, UP Electricity Regulatory Commission (UPERS) to which he was selected on March 19 this year. He served as Agriculture Production Commissioner (APC). Having moved the application seeking VRS from the IAS he is expected to take charge as UPERC chairman soon. As per rules the government will have to decide on application within 90 days. Singh's VRS application has almost coincided with the SC order dated April 12 which said that one member of any state electricity regulatory commission must be from judicial background. UPERC, a three-member body, has only one berth vacant and none of them has judicial background and Singh, a bureaucrat, is yet to take the charge as chairman. A petitioner M Jaiswal had moved the HC seeking stay on his selection on the ground that SC was hearing a petition saying a SERC chairman should be a retired high court judge. But the Supreme Court in its Thursday order ruled that it was not "mandatory" to appoint a an HC Judge as the chairperson of SERC putting to rest the complex question that arose due to conflicting judgments of Gujarat and Madras high courts.