BANKEY BIHARI Vs. BTC INDUSTRIES PVT. LTD.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Heard Sri Pradeep Kumar Chauhan, learned counsel for the appellant, Sri Shobhit Saharia, learned counsel for the first respondent, and Sri Akshay Latwal, learned counsel holding brief of Sri N.S. Pundir, learned counsel for respondents 2 and 3.

(2.) This Special Appeal is preferred against the order passed by the learned Single Judge in MCC No. 627 of 2019 in Writ Petition (MS) No. 124 of 2010 dated 08.07.2019. The appellant herein is the applicant in MCC No. 627 of 2019, and the first respondent in. The first respondent in this Special Appeal filed seeking a writ of certiorari to quash the orders passed by the Ombudsman (Electricity), Dehradun dated 16.09.2009 and 21.01.2010; and a writ of certiorari to quash Regulation 4(1)(a) of the UERC (Appointment and Functioning of Ombudsman) Regulations, 2004, to the extent it vested in the Ombudsman the power to receive representations against any order of the Forum, and Regulation 5 of the said Regulations as being ultra vires and inconsistent with the provisions of the Electricity Act, 2003.

(3.) Facts, to the limited extent necessary, are that the Executive Engineer, Electricity Distribution Division, Rudrapur passed an order on 18.08.2006 directing recovery of Rs. 31,15,388, from the respondent-writ petitioner, as cost sharing of a pre-existing different independent feeder installed for the appellant herein by the Uttarakhand Power Corporation. The respondent-writ petitioner filed a representation before the Consumer Grievance Redressal Forum Kumaun at Haldwani constituted under Section 42 (5) of the Electricity Act, 2003. The Consumer Forum, by its order dated 04.04.2009, cancelled the demand raised by the Executive Engineer, in his order dated 18.08.2006 for Rs. 31,15,388/-, holding that the Office Memorandum dated 29.01.2006 was not applicable. The Forum further directed that Rs. 13,69,835-due to the respondent-writ petitioner be adjusted in the next three electricity bills. The appellants herein submitted a representation to the Ombudsman (Electricity) under Section 42(6) of the Electricity Act, 2003; and the Ombudsman, by his order dated 16.09.2009, set aside the order passed by the Forum and, in effect, restored the order passed by the Executive Engineer.