- (1.) THE Court : THE petitioner in this WP under art.226 dated July 9, 2010 is seeking a mandamus commanding the respondents to give him supply of electricity to his premises in question.
(2.) IN para.2 the petitioner has stated that he submitted the requisite application for supply of electricity on February 15, 2008. Case stated by him in para.5 is as follows: "5. Your petitioner moved office of the respondent authority and came to know that in case of invisible reason the respondent no-4 failed to send any line's man to give effect the connection. Your petitioner personally met with the respondent no 4 and respondent no-2 to know about the fate of service connection number they stated that due to arrear dues of elder brother of petitioner they did not able to give connection. Petitioner asked that the said brother entitled valid connection till date or not they did not say any thing for that reason petitioner made a prayer on 09.10.2009 addressing the respondent no-2 and 3 and the office of respondents accepted the same." The application for supply was submitted to West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company Limited, a licensee under the Electricity Act, 2003. The licensee, though was under an obligation to decide the application within the period mentioned in s.43 of the Act, did not give the requisite decision till July 9, 2010, when the WP was brought. By an order dated July 15, 2010 the WP was admitted. The licensee has filed an opposition dated July 15, 2011 producing therewith a copy of a letter dated February 15, 2008 stated to have been written by the petitioner to the licensee's Station Manager concerned offering to pay outstanding energy charge, if any, for the premises in question.
(3.) CASE stated by the licensee in sub-para.(c) of para.4 of its opposition is as follows: "c). It is submitted that after receiving quotational amount from the petitioner, an inspection was carried out by the concerned Station Manager for effecting connection to his premises but in course of such inspection it was found / revealed that the premises where the petitioner is applied for new connection, there is already one existing service connection in the name of his brother being service connection no GDP/D/7320 and consumer no is D0266. The said service connection was disconnected on 26Th July, 2008 due to non payment of energy bills for the consumption months from June, 2008 to November, 2008, amounting to Rs-9028." The petitioner has filed a reply dated April 17, 2012. In para.8 he has said that he never enjoyed electricity that was supplied to his elder brother. He has also pointed out that it is beyond comprehension how for default on energy charge for the period from June 2008 to November 2008 the licensee could disconnect his brother's supply on July 26, 2008. As to the letter produced by the licensee with its opposition, he has specifically stated that he did not write the letter.;