V B MOTANI Vs. EXECUTIVE ENGINEER AND ORS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) BY this petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India the petitioner has challenged the order dated 31.7.2004 passed in Case No. 24 by the Appellate Committee, West Zone, Rajkot of the respondent Electricity Company as well as supplementary bills raised by the respondent at Annexure 'D' to the petition.

(2.) THE facts which can be culled out from the record of the petition are as under:

(3.) THAT the petitioner is resident of Jamnagar and is doctor by profession. The petitioner runs his dispensary at Jamnagar and is customer of the respondent bearing customer no. 32105/05149/9. It is the case of the petitioner that the petitioner use to regularly pay the bills for the energy that were raised by the respondent. The record indicates that on 2.7.2003 the petitioner submitted an application for change of old meter with a request to replace it by new electric meter. It further reveals that on 1.9.2003 the officers of the respondent Company visited the dispensary of the petitioner and prepared Rojkam and the meter came to be replaced accordingly. It was found at that juncture that the meter was intact and even the seals were intact, it was noticed that there was some gap between glass and cover from where a foreign element 'pati' (strip) can be inserted and therefore it was noted that there was some tampering with the meter.