ABHYANKAR,J. - (1.) THIS is a petition under Article 226 of the Constitution. The petitioner is the Nagpur Electric Light and Power Company Limited, Nagpur, Respondent No. 1 is the Maharashtra State Electricity Board, Bombay, and respondent No. 2 is the State of Maharashtra.
(2.) THE petitioner challenges, by this petition, the validity of a notice dated April 26, 1966, purporting to have been given by respondent No. 1 to the petitioner under Section 6(1) of the Indian Electricity Act, 1910 (IX of 1910). That notice is annexure E to the petition, at page 36 of the paper -book, and is as follows: MAHARASHTRA STATE ELECTRICITY BOARD Mercantile Bank Building, Fort, Bombay -1. No. PLE -VDB -2(A) 194751. Date 26th April 1966. By Regd. Post A.D. To M/S. The Nagpur Electric Light & Power Co. Ltd., Nagpur Branch, Post Box No. 2, Civil Lines, Nagpur. Sub: -Notice under Sub -section 1 and Sub -section 6 of Section 6 of the Indian Electricity Act, 1910, to purchase your Electricity Undertaking by Maharashtra State Electricity Board on expiry of the licence granted to you under the said Act. Dear Sirs, I am directed to give you notice that the Maharashtra State Electricity Board has decided to purchase your Electricity Undertaking at Nagpur (District Nagpur) in exercise of the option to purchase vested in the Board by Sub -section (1) of Section 6 of the Indian Electricity Act, 1910 and to require you to sell your said undertaking to the Board on the midnight of 3rd/4th May, 1967, being the date of expiry of the licence granted to you by the Government under the said Act and also to call upon you under Sub -section (6) of Section 6 of the said Act to deliver the said undertaking to the Board on the said date of expiry of the said licence pending determination and payment of purchase price. This Notice is given to you in supersession of the Notice No. PLE/VDB -2(A) 59597 15th September, 1965, in view of the amendment of your license by the Government Notification No. LNA(M) -1265/22530 -Elec -I, dated 19 -4 -66. Yours faithfully, Sd/ -K. B. Srinivasan, 25 -4 -66 Secretary. There was in force in this region in 1905 the Indian Electricity Act, 1903 (III of 1903) (hereinafter referred to as the 1903 Act). Under Sub -section (1) of g. 4 of that Act, the Local Government was empowered to grant a licence to any person to supply energy for any purpose in specified areas. In exercise of this power, the Chief Commissioner of the then Central Provinces granted a licence to Messrs Crompton and Company, Limited, London, for supply of electricity for general purposes within the municipal area of Nagpur. A copy of that licence has been filed as annexure A with the petition. In the Central Provinces Gazette dated May 6, 1905, the notification granting the licence and the terras and conditions of the licence have been published. Though the notification is dated May 4, 1905, it is published in the Gazette dated May 6, 1905. The licence has six clauses and four annexures. Clause 4 of the licence states that the licence shall come into force and have effect upon the day when the notification confirming it is published in the Central Provinces Gazette, and that day shall, for the purposes of the said Act, be deemed to be the commencement of this licence.
(3.) UNDER Sub -clause (g) of Clause 3 of this licence, the right to purchase the undertaking in respect of which the licence is granted shall enure after the following periods, that is to say, (i) after 42 years from the commencement of this licence, and (ii) after every subsequent period of 10 years. Under Clause 2 of the licence, the licence is to be read and construed subject in all respects to the provisions of the incorporation of the Schedule to the Indian Electricity Act, 1903.;