- (1.) BOTH these matters involve common question of law and fact and therefore, have been taken together.
(2.) GRIEVANCE of petitioners is that though the kind of industry they are i.e. Cold Storages, continuous process industry, they are not being supplied electricity regularly despite Government policy and exemption of power cut to the petitioners' kind of industry, vide Government Order dated 21.9.2012 hence they are being discriminated. The contention of learned counsel for the respondents on the contrary is that electricity is in great scarcity. The demand exceed the availability. The generation is limited while requirement in the State is much more than that. Besides, there are priorities, which have to be looked into by respondents while supplying electricity to the various categories of consumers. The State has a constitutional and otherwise obligation not only to distribute its material resources equitably but also looking to peculiar features of certain classes, policies of Government, like industrial development, protection of crops, welfare of patients in a hospital and other medical establishments, students' welfare, preventing obstruction in functioning of judicial establishments etc. and in that view of the matter, for certain categories of consumers, period of supply of electricity is different and this classification based on rationality and intelligible differentia, action of the respondents cannot be said to be bad or violative of any provision of law as well as Article 14 of the Constitution of India.
(3.) LEARNED counsel for the petitioner while accepting the authority and privilege of respondents in providing electricity for different period to different categories of consumers founded on an intelligible differentia, based on rational and logical grounds, submitted that electricity to the petitioner's industry does not conform to such rational classification. Amongst the same category of consumers, the petitioners are being discriminated. It is also pointed out that Cold Storages situated in certain districts have privilege for unknown reasons of getting supply for 24 hours but the same treatment is being denied to petitioners though petitioners also belong to the same category of consumers namely 'industrial' having same kind of process, i.e. Cold Storage. He also drew our attention to an order passed by this Court earlier, inasmuch as, a Division Bench consisting of Hon'ble L.K.Mohapatra, J. and Hon'ble Rakesh Srivastava, J. passed order dated 26.4.2013 in Writ Petition No.21858 of 2013 and directions contained therein read as under: (1) The petitioner be supplied electricity for at least 16 to 18 hours a day, as was being done earlier, forthwith from the independent feeder, constructed at their cost. (2) If the petitioners insist upon supply of 24 hours electricity supply a day, as prayed in the writ application, appropriate steps be taken immediately for converting the independent feeder into industrial feeder, and the petitioners be supplied 24 hours electricity supply without interruption. (3) This exercise be completed within fifteen days from the date of communication of the order. ;