Gujarat High Court
Jamadar Mustak Ismail vs Dakshin Gujarat Vij Company Ltd on 24 April, 2025
NEUTRAL CITATION
C/SCA/5520/2025 ORDER DATED: 24/04/2025
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IN THE HIGH COURT OF GUJARAT AT AHMEDABAD
R/SPECIAL CIVIL APPLICATION NO. 5520 of 2025
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JAMADAR MUSTAK ISMAIL
Versus
DAKSHIN GUJARAT VIJ COMPANY LTD.
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Appearance:
SANKUL K KABRA(9304) for the Petitioner(s) No. 1
MR DIPAK R DAVE(1232) for the Respondent(s) No. 1
MR CHINMAY GANDHI for the Respondent(s) No.1
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CORAM:HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE ANIRUDDHA P. MAYEE
Date : 24/04/2025
ORAL ORDER
1. Heard learned advocates for the parties.
2. Issue Notice returnable forthwith. Mr. Chinmay Gandhi, learned advocate waives service of notice for the respondent.
3. It is submitted by the learned advocate for the petitioner that the petitioner is limiting his prayer in the present writ petition only to the extent of opportunity of hearing being given on the computation which has been arrived at by the competent authority. He submits that the computation as done in the supplementary bill under Section 135 was dehors the law. He submits that the petitioner may be granted opportunity to raise objections to the assessment made under Clause 7.12 of the Gujarat Electricity Regulatory Commission (Electricity Supply Code and Related Matters Regulations), 2015. In support of his contention, learned advocate for the petitioner has relied upon Page 1 of 3 Uploaded by KAUSHIK D. CHAUHAN(HC00197) on Thu Apr 24 2025 Downloaded on : Fri Apr 25 02:58:05 IST 2025 NEUTRAL CITATION C/SCA/5520/2025 ORDER DATED: 24/04/2025 undefined the decision of the learned Division Bench of this Court dated 14.12.2023 in Letters Patent Appeal Nos.1445 of 2023 and 1446 of 2023, more particularly para 27 and 29 thereof. He further relies upon another judgment of the learned Division Bench of this Court dated 29.01.2025 in Letters Patent Appeal No.64 of 2024.
4. Mr. Chinmay Gandhi, learned advocate for the respondent company submits that though there is no dispute with respect to the legal position as settled in the judgments relied upon by the learned advocate for the petitioner, he submits that after consideration of all the relevant provisions of the Electricity Act, 2003 as well as Electricity Supply Code, 2015, the learned Division Bench of this Court has disposed of the Letters Patent Appeal with the observations that the appellant therein shall be entitled to opportunity of hearing to the disputed assessment made by the Assessing Officer in the matter of energy consumption as per the assessment formula and also the period during which such theft has taken place. He submits that any challenge to the issue of theft of electricity can be agitated as also the maintainability of the challenge to the supplementary bill issued under Section 135 since appropriate remedy under Section 154 of the Electricity Act, 2003 is available to the petitioner.
5. Considering the submissions and the judgments of the learned Division Bench of this Court dated 14.12.2023 in Letters Patent Appeal Nos.1445 of 2023 and 1446 of 2023 and dated 29.01.2025 in Letters Patent Appeal No.64 of 2024, the present Page 2 of 3 Uploaded by KAUSHIK D. CHAUHAN(HC00197) on Thu Apr 24 2025 Downloaded on : Fri Apr 25 02:58:05 IST 2025 NEUTRAL CITATION C/SCA/5520/2025 ORDER DATED: 24/04/2025 undefined Special Civil Application is disposed of with the observation that the petitioner herein shall be entitled to opportunity of hearing to dispute the assessment made by the Assessing Officer in the matter of energy consumption as per the assessment formula given in Annexure-IV of the Electricity Supply Code, 2015 as also the period during which such theft of electricity has taken place, i.e. the computation of the period as per Clause 7.7 of the Electricity Supply Code, 2015. The supplementary bill dated 24.2.2025, the subject matter of challenge herein shall be treated as the provisional assessment and be made subject to the final assessment to be made after grant of opportunity to the petitioner herein. The petitioner is directed to file his objections to the competent authority to the supplementary bill dated 24.02.2025 within 2 weeks from today. Upon receipt of such objections, the competent authority shall decide the said objections in accordance with law within a period of 2 weeks thereafter dealing with all the contentions raised in the objections filed by the petitioner and pass a reasoned and speaking order in accordance with law.
With the aforesaid directions, the present Special Civil Application stands disposed of. No order as to costs.
(ANIRUDDHA P. MAYEE, J.) KAUSHIK D. CHAUHAN Page 3 of 3 Uploaded by KAUSHIK D. CHAUHAN(HC00197) on Thu Apr 24 2025 Downloaded on : Fri Apr 25 02:58:05 IST 2025