MAHASHAKTI COLD STORAGE Vs. STATE OF U P

JUDGEMENT

(1.) BOTH these matters involve common question of law and fact and therefore, have been taken together.

(2.) GRIEVANCE of petitioners is that though the kind of industry they are i.e. Cold Storages, continuous process industry, they are not being supplied electricity regularly despite Government policy and exemption of power cut to the petitioners' kind of industry, vide Government Order dated 21.9.2012 hence they are being discriminated.

(3.) LEARNED counsel for the petitioner while accepting the authority and privilege of respondents in providing electricity for different period to different categories of consumers founded on an intelligible differentia, based on rational and logical grounds, submitted that electricity to the petitioner's industry does not conform to such rational classification. Amongst the same category of consumers, the petitioners are being discriminated. It is also pointed out that Cold Storages situated in certain districts have privilege for unknown reasons of getting supply for 24 hours but the same treatment is being denied to petitioners though petitioners also belong to the same category of consumers namely 'industrial' having same kind of process, i.e. Cold Storage. He also drew our attention to an order passed by this Court earlier, inasmuch as, a Division Bench consisting of Hon'ble L.K.Mohapatra, J. and Hon'ble Rakesh Srivastava, J. passed order dated 26.4.2013 in Writ Petition No.21858 of 2013 and directions contained therein read as under: