GINI VITREOUS PRIVATE LIMITED Vs. CENTRAL ELECTRICITY SUPPLY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner M/s. Gini Vitreous Pvt. Ltd. represented by its Managing Director has approached this Court by the present writ petition seeking mainly a direction to the opposite parties, i.e. the Central Electricity Supply Company of Orissa Ltd. ('CESCO' in short) and its functionaries/authorities. i.e. O.P. Nos. 2 to 4, to restore power supply to its factory at Tangiapada in the district of Khurda, alleging the same to have been disrupted by the opposite parties illegally and arbitrarily. apart from seeking the incidental relief of quashing Annexure 3, the show cause notice issued to the petitioner alongwith the penal electric charges, and the orders passed by the opposite parties consequential to Annexure 3. which have prejudicially affected the petitioner and have brought the petitioner's factory to a grinding halt.

(2.) THE case of the petitioner in brief is that it is a company within the meaning of the Indian Companies Act, 1956 and carries on the business of manufacturing salt glazed stoneware pipes' and fittings in its factory at Tangiapada in the district of Khurda. It is a consumer of electricity, the supply being given to its factory in August, 1992 categorising it as a Medium Industry. The petitioner was all through paying the electricity charges regularly and diligently on the basis of the bills raised by O.P. No. 2 the Executive Engineer (Elect.} Khurda Electrical Division. It is alleged that while the petitioner was so paying the energy bills. O.P. No. 3. the Team Leader of Meter Relay Testing Squad ('MRT Squad' in short), Bhubaneswar along with the Junior Engineer (Elect.), Section No. II, Khurda, with some ulterior motive on 4.1.2001 made certain inspection of the electric meter and its associated equipments installed in the petitioner's factory in the absence of any authorised representative of the petitioner and basing upon their aforesaid inspection, O.P. No. 2 served a notice on the petitioner on 6.1.2001, vide Annexure 3 to the writ petition, asking the petitioner to show cause within seven days of the notice as to why the power supply to its factory would not be disconnected and the petitioner should not pay a penalty of Rs. 10,34,512/ for the alleged unauthorised/ dishonest abstraction of power and tampering with the meter by it. On 12.1.2001 the petitioner submitted a preliminary reply, vide Annexure 4, to the show cause notice (Annexure 3) and while denying the allegations of unauthorised/dishonest, abstraction of power and tampering with the meter, etc. requested the opposite parties for being supplied with a copy of the alleged inspection report of the MRT Squad dated 4.1.2001 referred to in the show cause notice (Annexure 3) for giving an effective reply to the show cause notice, with a further request not to take any punitive measures against it as indicated in the said annexure. On receipt of Annexure 4, O.P. No. 2 by his letter dated 16.1.2001 (Annexure 5) furnished a copy of the aforesaid MRT Squad report dated 4.1.2001 as per Annexure 6 and the petitioner submitted its additional reply on 20.1.2001 vide Annexure 7, inter alia, disputing the MRT Squad report dated 4.1.2001 and refuting the genuineness of the MRT Squad report while requesting for being supplied with a genuine copy of the said report.

(3.) THEREAFTER the petitioner moved this Court in a writ petition being O.J.C. No. 2310 of 2001 challenging the order dated 23.2.2001 of the Addl. District Judge. Khurda. which was later on converted into a Civil Revision. This Court disposed of the said Civil Revision on 3.3.2001 with the observation that it would be open to the petitioner to file a fresh petition seeking mandatory injunction for restoration of power supply to its factory. The petitioner, pursuant to the said observation of this Court, filed such a petition, but the same was rejected by the Civil Judge (J.D.), Khurda, vide his order dated 22.3.2001, vide Annexure 21.