VALSA GEORGE Vs. KERALA STATE ELECTRICITY WARD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The Kerala State Electricity Board is constituted under S.5 of the Electricity (Supply) Act, 1948, for short the Supply Act.

(2.) The powers and duties of the Electricity Boards ace prescribed by the provisions contained in Chapter IV of the Supply Act. S.26 provides that subject to the provisions of the Supply Act, the Board shall, in respect of the whole State, have all the powers and obligations of a licensee under the Indian Electricity Act, 1910 (Act 9 of 1910). It has further been provided that the Supply Act shall be deemed to be the licence of the Board for the purposes of that Act. That does not mean that the Board has all the duties and obligations of a licensee under the Indian Electricity Act. A reference in this connection to the first proviso to S.26 of the Supply Act is profitable. The proviso says that nothing in S.3 to 11, sub-s. (2) and (3) of S.21 and S.22, Sub-s.(2) of S.22A and S.23 and 27 of the Electricity Act or in Clauses I to V, Clauses VII and IX to XII of the Schedule to the Act relating to the duties and obligations of a licensee shall apply to the Board. The other previsions in the Supply Act are not relevant for the purpose of deciding the issue now before me and therefore I do not propose to burden this judgment with the details of the other sections.

(3.) S.26 of the Supply Act governs the rights, duties and obligations of both the licensee and the consumer in regard to matters relating to meters. The amount of energy supplied to a consumer or the electrical quantity contained in the supply is ascertained by meats of a comet meter installed in the premises of the consumer, in the absence of an agreement to the contrary. (Sub-s. 1). Sub-s. 2 provides that where the licensee fails to get the meter corrected, the consumer shall cease to be liable to pay for the hire of the meter. Similarly where the consumer fails to get the defect in the meter rectified, the licensee may cut the supply. In case the Board finds that the meter is defective, the proper course is to proceed under Sub-s. 4 of S.26. The consumer has no authority to connect any meter on any electric supply line through which energy is supplied by the Board, or disconnect the same from any such electric supply line, but he may by giving not less than 48 hours notice in writing to the Board require the Board to connect or disconnect such meter and en receipt of any such requisition the Board shall comply with it within the period of the notice. It has been so provided under Sub-s. S.