SOM PAL SINGH Vs. STATE OF U.P.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Heard learned counsel for the petitioner and Sri Neeraj Tiwari appearing for the respondent-Corporation.

(2.) Petitioner has challenged the recovery citation dtd. 18/2/2016 whereby a sum of Rs.1,87,200.00 is being realized from the petitioner towards consumption of electrical energy.

(3.) On 30/3/2016, Sri Neeraj Tiwari, learned counsel for the respondents-Corporation was granted time to seek instructions in the matter. He has produced before us the copy of surprise inspection of petitioner's premises which was carried out on 25/11/2015, wherein, it was found that petitioner was unauthorizedly using electrical energy for commercial purposes even though his connection was for residential use only. Thereafter, the respondent authorities issued a provisional assessment notice to the petitioner dtd. 9/12/2015 calling upon him to submit its reply within fifteen days. The petitioner asserts that the notice dtd. 9/12/2015 was actually not served upon the petitioner and, as such, no objection could be filed by the petitioner. It is contended on behalf of petitioner that since he did not receive the copy of the provisional assessment, as such he could not submit his reply and in absence whereof the respondent treated it to be final and issued recovery certificate Learned counsel for the petitioner has invited the attention of the Court to provisional assessment notice dtd. 9/12/2015, service whereof upon the petitioner is disputed. The fact that petitioner has not been served with the provisional assessment notice, has also been asserted in Para 13 of the writ petition. The argument of the learned counsel for the petitioner is that in the absence of service of provisional assessment, the petitioner could not file his objection and his statutory right to submit a reply has been denied to him. Submission also is that the respondents have proceeded to issue the recovery citation pursuant to the provisional assessment order, without actually passing any order of final assessment. Reliance has been placed upon the observation made by this Court in Writ-C No. 24772 of 2012 (Vinod Kumar Agarwal Vs. State of U.P. and others), decided on 10/7/2012. Relevant extract of the judgment dtd. 10/7/2012 is reproduced:-