SARVOTHAM ISPAT LTD Vs. A PS E BOARD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Writ petitioner-appellant has suffered interruption in the supply of electricity and enforcement of a weekly holiday i.e. no supply at all, on a particular day, of electricity to its factory and moved this Court under Art. 226 of the Constitution of India for a direction to keep such supply regularly and ready for consumption as agreed to between the parties. It has also made a grievance that the respondents have discriminated as others have been supplied the electricity to the extent of the quota determined for similarly situated persons. Respondents have denied the above averment and asserted that they have made no discrimination and have maintained equal supply of electricity to all such concerned industries in the city except that for different areas different holiday for the supply of electricity has been introduced and in the case of the petitioner- appellant every Tuesday of the week has been imposed as a holiday.

(2.) Since the facts as above are confined to the exercise of such power, which is envisaged under Sec. 49(1) of the Electricity (Supply) Act, 1948 and rules and regulations framed thereunder as to the conditions for the purpose of such supply, it is not necessary to refer to other provisions either of the Electricity (Supply) Act, 1948 or the Electricity Act, 1910. The Supreme Court in "A.C. Mills vs. A.P.S.E.Board" (1) has, although primarily dealt with the fixation of a special tariff for a section of consumers, observed as follows : -

(3.) Learned single Judge has, after taking notice of the facts and taking into consideration the submission made on behalf of the respondents that the power is being made available on the petitioner- appellant's factory for a duration of 18 hours to enable it to operate the industry for a minimum of two shifts and from 8th July, 1995 onwards the power is being made available from 8 A.M. to 5 P.M. and 9 P.M. to 6 A.M. and further that the non-availability of power between 5 P.M. to 9 P.M. is due to peak load hours, for which restrictions were adhered to during the period of power restriction with respect to High Tension industry and that the pattern of supply was expected to be continued until further improvement in the power operation, closed the writ petition.