MASUK DENTAL PRODEUCTS PVT LTD. Vs. EXECUTIVE ENGINEER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This petition is filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India to challenge the order dated 22.01.2004 passed by Appellate Committee in Appeal No. A-116 of 2003 preferred by the petitioner challenging supplementary bill issued to it for an amount of Rs. 14,20,467.85 paise.

(2.) The supplementary bill was issued to the petitioner on the ground that the petitioner unauthorizedly used more load of 114.769 HP without permission of the Gujarat Electricity Board ('the Board') - now Madhya Gujarat Vij Company Ltd ('the Company').

(3.) The case of the petitioner is that after the petitioner was granted recognition for Dental College by Dental Council of India ('DCI'), the Inspector of the DCI inspected the premises and as per the norms of DCI, 70 Dental Chairs with a capacity of 1.75 HP were required to be installed with 10 HP Tubewell, and, since the petitioner had original power supply of 40 HP which was not sufficient, it applied for additional load of 150 KVA for its Dental College on 19.09.2002. It is the case of the petitioner that as per the revised estimate given by the Board, i was required to pay Rs. 1,97,381/- for service line, service connection charges and development charges plus Rs. 3,59,727/- towards security deposit which the petitioner deposited on 04.06.2003. After depositing of such amount, the testing report was also submitted by the petitioner as prescribed under the terms and conditions of the Board on 09.07.2003. It was, thereafter, the Board communicated to the petitioner that it had agreed to release 150 KVA power supply and order was issued to the petitioner where one of the conditions was that if the petitioner did not get No Objection Certificate ('NOC') from Gujarat Pollution Control Board ('GPCB'), the petitioner shall be charged minimum bill for contract load of 150 KVA after expiry of three months. As averred in the petition, subsequently, the petitioner was asked to procure metering CTPT unit for release of the new load. The Board then approved lay out and released the connection and started billing on the basis of 150 KVA load. However, on 16.10.2003, the checking squad of the Board inspected the connection of the petitioner and since it was found that the petitioner had started using 150 KVA against sanctioned load of 40 HP, the checking sheet was prepared and the petitioner was issued supplementary bill for the above stated amount.