- (1.) The Court : The petitioners in this WP under art.226 dated January 2, 2012 are seeking a mandamus commanding West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company Limited, a licensee under the Electricity Act, 2003, to reconnect supply of electricity so that they may operate a submersible pump. Case of the petitioners is this. In 2007 they installed a submersible pump for extraction and use of groundwater. They applied to the Panchayat Samity for permission to instal the pump. In January 2010 they applied for supply of electricity, and on January 21, 2010 the licensee supplied them electricity for operating the pump. After December 2010 the licensee has disconnected the supply.
(2.) The admitted position is that the Authority under the West Bengal Ground Water Resources (Management, Control and Regulation) Act, 2005 has not issued any permit or certificate of registration of an existing well authorising the petitioners to sink a well, install a pump therein and extract or use groundwater. Under the circumstances, they were not entitled to instal the pump in question in 2007. In view of the rules made under the 2005 Act, after February 2007, when the rules came into force, the petitioners could not instal the pump without first obtaining a permit or certificate of registration from the District Level Authority concerned. Their own case is that they installed the pump on May 23, 2007.
(3.) There can be no doubt that they installed the pump in clear contravention of the provisions of the Act. Section 16 of the Act provides that contravention of the Act is an offence.;