UTTARAKHAND POWER CORPORATION LTD Vs. OMBUDSMAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) ALL these appeals have raised identical questions of fact and law, and accordingly, they are being disposed of by this common judgment and order.

(2.) UTTARAKHAND Electricity Regulatory Commission, constituted by and under the Electricity Act, 2003, made and published tariff order on 8th September, 2003, whereby and under, it provided 'no system loading charge will be payable' under the heading 'industrial consumers'. In the next tariff order for the Financial Year 2005-06, UERC repeated what it had stated in its order dated 9th September, 2003, and on top of that directed refund of the same together with interest at bank rate.

(3.) SINCE these were the questions, we thought that it would be appropriate to permit the appellants to add UERC as a party to the appeals, and accordingly, UERC has been added as party to the appeals. However, the fact remains that the validity of the order of UERC dated 8th September, 2003 and follow up orders are required to be successfully challenged by the appellant to enable it to claim from the respondents payment of system loading charge, inasmuch as, by the tariff order dated 8th September, 2003, made and published in the manner prescribed in the Act, a representation has been made to the world at large, including the respondents, that no system loading charge is recoverable by the appellant or payable by the respondents. In the circumstances, until the appellant successfully removed the direction to the effect that no system loading charge will be payable, from the tariff order dated 8th September, 2003, since the appellant is equally bound by the said tariff order and the directions contained therein, it could not claim the same. The Consumer Grievances Redressal Forum and the Ombudsman, constituted / designated or appointed, as the case may be, under the provisions of the said Act, had and have no jurisdiction to determine the correctness of a tariff order. In those circumstances, in the writ petition filed by the appellant, in the form as it was filed, the question whether the decision contained in the tariff order dated 8th September, 2003, to the effect that no system loading charge will be payable is or is not correct could not, nor can be gone into. The same has to be challenged in the manner provided in the Act, and that is by preferring an appeal.