The Andhra Pradesh high court on Monday upheld the recent hike in power tariff effected by the state government. A division bench of the court, comprising of Mr. Justice P Venkatram Reddy and Mr Justice S R Nayak, dismissed as "devoid of any merit", all the writ petitions questioning the validity of the hike imposed on the agricultural and domestic sectors in the state. The bench, however, felt that the hike in the tariff of the first two slabs were ''very harsh and steep'' and it was left to the state government to take appropriate steps to mitigate the hardship to consumers. Bureau Report