HARYANA STATE ELECTRICITY BOARD Vs. HARYANA STATE BOARD FOR PREVENTION AND CONTROL OF WATER POLLUTION

JUDGEMENT

(1.) ADMITTED . Pleadings of the parties are complete. By consent writ petition placed on board and called our for hearing.

(2.) THE petitioner is the Haryana State Electricity Board having its Civil Maintenance Division, Panipat Thermal Power Station, Assan, Panipat. The third respondent is the assessing authority, under Section 6 of the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Cases Act, 1977, (hereinafter called the Act ). The second respondent is the appellate committee constituted under the Act. It is not in dispute that the petitioner who was supposed to file the return under section 5 of the Act, failed to file the same. Consequently, the assessing authority in exercise of its powers assessed the liability of the petitioner and served the assessment order-cum-water services cess bill for the period from February 1, 1992 to October 31, 1992, Annexure P-2. The petitioner carried an appeal to the appellate committee and the appellate committee vide its order dated August 31,1994, Annexure P-4, dismissed the appeal. It is this order of the appellate committee which is the subject matter of challenge in this writ petition.

(3.) AFTER hearing the counsel for the parties and after perusing the impugned orders, we are of the opinion that the assessing authority has violated the principles of natural justice and it ought to have heard the petitioner before determining the liability in respect of the water services cess. Having not done so, the order passed by the assessing authority and on appeal confirmed by the appellate committee, cannot be sustained.