MALAYALAM CHEMICALS PVT. LTD. Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner, M/s. Malayalam Chemicals (P) Ltd., a company incorporated under the Companies Act, 1956, was an HT industrial consumer under the Electrical Sec. , Irumpanam, with a contract demand of 500 KVA, and had commenced commercial production of Calcium Carbonate on 11/3/1996. Following default in paying the arrears of electricity charges, the petitioner's service connection was dismantled on 7/10/2006. Ext.P16 order dtd. 28/1/2025 issued by 3rd respondent shows that the petitioner had an outstanding arrears of Rs.27,27,744.00 towards regular current charges for the consumption from 09/2000 to 04/2006, after adjusting Rs.7,57,624.00 towards pre-92 tariff benefit, and Rs.40,51,631.00 towards penal charges assessed for theft of energy detected by the Anti-Power Theft Squad on 9/11/2005.

(2.) Both sides submit that the petitioner had cleared the liability as regards the penal charges on the allegations of theft, by remitting an amount of Rs.1,00,77,099.00, as seen from Exts.P11 and P11(a), consequent to the judgment in W.A. No. 1951 of 2022. For settling the electricity charges of Rs.27,27,744.00, the petitioner approached the Board claiming the benefit of the one-time settlement scheme, which was rejected through Ext.P16 dtd. 28/1/2025. The reason was that, as per the judgment in W.A. No. 1951 of 2022, the Board had extended a lower interest rate for settling the penal charges, and therefore, the Board directed the petitioner to clear the undisputed arrears at 8% interest per annum.

(3.) Initially, Ext.P16 was challenged in this writ petition. An interim order was passed by this Court on 19/2/2025, which reads as follows;