AMALGAMATED ELECTRICITY COMPANY LIMITED Vs. N S BATHENA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant is a company carrying on business as supplier of electricity in a certain area in the State of Bombay. The respondents Bathena and Tendulkar were consumers of electrical energy supplied by the appellant. The present appeals arise out of disputes between these consumers and the appellant concerning the legality of the charges made by the appellant for electricity supplied by it.

(2.) The supply of electrical energy is controlled by two statutes and the questions involved in the present cases will turn on them. These statutes are Electricity Act, 1910 and the Electricity (Supply) Act, 1948. I will first consider the Act of 1910. Section 3 of this Act gives power to the Government to grant a licence to a party to supply electrical energy in any specified area and to prescribe in the licence the limits of price to be charged by it for the supply. This section further provides that the provisions in the Schedule to the Act would, unless otherwise directed, be deemed, to be incorporated in the licence. Paragraph XI of that Schedule states that a licensee would not be entitled to exceed the limits of price fixed in his licence. This paragraph, however, gives power to the Government to alter these limits on the recommendation of an Advisory Board appointed under S. 35 of the Act. It is not necessary to refer to the other provisions of this Act.

(3.) The appellant had been supplying electricity under a licence issued in 1932 by the Government of Bombay under the Act of 1910. The licence fixed the limits of the prices which the appellant could charge but these limits were altered by an order made by the Government on December 30, 1942 under paragraph XI of the Schedule and stood thereafter as follows: