FLEX FOODS LTD Vs. APPELLATE COMMITTEE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner is a limited company incorporated under the Indian companies Act, 1956. The company is engaged in cultivation of mushrooms, which is done at a farm in Village Chhiddarwala, dehradun. The mushrooms, which are subsequently processed and packed in a factory needs continuous supply of electricity. Therefore, in the year, 1991, the petitioner had applied for two power connections; one for 1600 KVA for its mushroom cultivation at Village Chhiddarwala and another for 900 kva for preservation and processing of mushroom fruits and vegetables at Lal thappar. Both these places are in Dehradun, uttarakhand.

(2.) ACCORDING to the petitioner for technical reasons, but primarily due to fear of overloading, he was not given electricity connection directly from Bhaniawala sub-station. Consequently, the petitioner pleaded before the Power Corporation that it may be given connection by extending 33kv independent feeder of M/s. Birla Yamaha Limited. At this juncture, it is necessary to elaborate the very concept of an 'independent feeder' as it goes to the root of the matter. 'independent feeder' is generally used by factories which need a constant and uninterrupted high voltage supply of electricity and in order to make it feasible, the only method is that such factory should not be connected with usual common feeders such as the urban feeder or the rural feeder, which transmit electricity to ordinary consumers, but a special facility is given, whereby the power supply of a particular capacity is directly given to such factory from a sub-station.

(3.) ALL the same, before such a facility could be given to the petitioner, the erstwhile power department (now the uttarakhand Power Corporation Limited and for the sake of convenience will be referred to as "corporation") made a feasibility report and the feasibility report gave a finding that the petitioner's factories can be given electricity by tapping electricity from the birla Yamaha Ltd. , which was getting electricity by an 'independent feeder'. The requirement was a "no Objection Certificate" from Birla Yamaha Limited in favour of the petitioner, which was done and submitted before the Corporation, an agreement was signed between the petitioner and the Birla yamaha Limited, whereby this special arrangement could be made possible after the petitioner deposits a cheque of Rs. 15,00,000 (Fifteen Lacs) as interest free refundable deposit with Birla Yamaha Ltd. All this was in the year, 1991. The petitioner subsequently started getting the supply of electricity through "birla Yamaha Limited", which in turn was getting electricity by an "independent feeder".