K KANAGASABAI Vs. THE SUPERINTENDING ENGINEER KANNIYAKUMARI ELECTRICITY DISTRIBUTION CIRCLE NAGERCOIL & ANOTHER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The Petitioner, who is practicising as an Advocate in Nagercoil and also panel lawyer for Legal Aid and Advisory Board at Kanniyakumari District, would contend that he is having his office in a small portion of his house along with an Advocate Mr. K. Rathinasamy. The small portion of his house forms part of the office. When the Petitioner applied for electricity service connection, he was directed to pay security deposit of Rs. 2,500/-, treating the advocate office as a Commercial establishment. The Tariff was classified as IA for domestic purpose and Tariff V. for Commercial Establishment. Since the portion of the Petitioner's house is utilised as an office, the tariff to be levied was classified under Tariff V. and bi-monthly billing was done under Tariff V.

(2.) According to the Petitioner, the office of the Advocate does not come under the heading "Commercial" for payment of consumption of energy at commercial rate. The profession of an advocate is different from commercial activity. According to him, the Advocate profession is a professional activity and he has to apply his professional skill as against the commercial or business activities and therefore, the tariff categorisation for having utilised a small portion of his house for the purpose of his profession is unlawful, illegal, irrational, arbitrary and violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India.

(3.) In this connection, the learned Counsel for the Petitioner relied upon the judgment reported in V. Sasidharan v. Peter and Karunakar and Ors., 1984 AIR(SC) 1700 wherein the Supreme Court has categorically held that the Office of a Lawyer or Firm of a Lawyer is not a Commercial Establishment. The learned Counsel for the Petitioner also relied on the Division Bench judgment of Madhya Pradesh High Court reported in Shiv Narayan and Anr. v. M.P. Electricity Board and Ors., 1999 AIR(MP) 246 in which it was held that classification of Advocate and Vakkil under the heading "Commercial" for payment of consumption of electricity energy at commercial rate is arbitrary and irrational and ultra vires of Article 14 of Constitution of India.