Tamil Nadu - Chennai   

High Court upholds Electricity (Amendment) Act

CHENNAI: A person who indulges in fraud has to be kept as a separate class. A person who is accused of energy theft has to stand apart from the other consumers who are law-abiding, the Madras High Court has said.

Upholding the Electricity (Amendment) Act and the regulations made there under, Justice K. Chandru said in the light of the object of the Electricity Act 2003 and the need to check energy theft due to which revenue was siphoned off and the regulations having been made in a lawful manner, the attempt by petitioners to attack the legislation and the regulations as ultra vires of the Act could not be countenanced.

Petitioners sought a declaration that section 135 (1A) introduced by the amendment, and Regulation 1(C) under which Regulations 19 and 23 were amended in 2007 as arbitrary, illegal, ultra vires and unconstitutional. Section 135 dealt with theft of electricity. In the amended regulation, the petitioner’s grievance was with regard to introduction of a regulation which provided for procedure for assessment of electricity charges, disconnecting of supply and removing meter, electricity line, electricity plant and other apparatus in case of theft of energy.

Dismissing the petitions, Mr. Justice Chandru said when the authority was satisfied that theft had taken place, it could disconnect power supply forthwith. There was an obligation for them to lodge a complaint within 24 hours in a police station and also to make an assessment of the amounts to be paid by the consumer. There was a further direction to restore supply if the sum was deposited. When the matter would be heard by a Special Court, the consumer would be entitled to have a full-fledged trial. Apart from the trial outcome for the criminal offence, the same court was also empowered to fix civil liability for the consumer, who was accused of power theft. Therefore, an innocent consumer was fully safeguarded.

The need of the hour was to prevent loss of energy of which a big component was theft. The amendment and the regulations were only to fill the said need. No exception could be taken to it, the Judge said.

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