S.135(1A) Electricity Act | Restoration Of Supply Line Conditional On Deposit Or Payment Of Assessed Amount Or Electricity Charges: Gujarat HC

The Gujarat High Court has dismissed a Letters Patent Appeal challenging the computation of assessed electricity charges, emphasising that restoration of electricity supply must be contingent on payment of the assessed amount as per Section 135 of the Electricity Act, 2003. We may further record that the petitioner has not availed the remedy of filing appeal under Section 127 of the Electricity Act, 2003 to challenge the computation, inasmuch as, on the presentation of the appeal, as per Section 127, the petitioner would be required to deposit half of the assessed amount.” “The challenge to the assessment made by the Electricity Department as per the formula prescribed in clause 7.7 as contained in Section 7 of the Electricity Code, 2015 therefore, cannot be entertained in the instant appeal. The Court observed, “the petitioner, by playing trick with the department, has succeeded in getting restoration of electricity supply without making deposit of the entire assessed amount or electricity charges in accordance with the provisions of the Act. Thus, not finding any good ground to accept the arguments of the advocate for the petitioner that opportunity of hearing was not granted to the petitioner while making assessment of the energy consumption by unauthorized means, the Court held, “It is more than evident that the petitioner has adopted ways and means to get away from making deposits of the assessed amount towards unauthorised consumption of electricity and has succeeded in getting restoration of electricity by playing tricks.” Accordingly, the Letters Patent Appeal was dismissed.