- (1.) This order shall dispose of aforesaid five writ petitions bearing CWP No. 13209 of 2013, CWP No. 22308 of 2013, CWP No. 23592 of 2013, CWP No. 2749 of 2014 and CWP No. 808 of 2014 as the issue involved in all is the same. However, for the sake of convenience, the facts are being extracted from CWP No. 13209 of 2013.
(2.) In short, the petitioner has challenged the order dated 28.05.2013 (Annexure P.3) purported to have been passed as final order of assessment in terms of Section 125 of the Electricity Act, 2003 (for brevity "the Act") and the notice of the same date, which has been issued under Section 135 read with Section 152 of the Act, asking the petitioner to compound the offence, if he so desires.
(3.) Learned counsel for the petitioner has submitted that in the case of a suspected theft, the respondent is obliged to issue a show cause notice whereas in this case, no show cause notice was issued to the petitioner. In this regard, he has relied upon Instructions/Circular No. 54/2007 issued by the respondent-Corporation. It is argued that the assessment made by the respondents of the amount of Rs. 11,66,650/- under Section 135 of the Act is in violation of Section 154 (5) of the Act as according to him, assessment could have been made only by the Special Court, which is constituted under Section 153 of the Act. It is further submitted that the remedy of compounding is still available to the petitioner even if he has been held guilty by the Special Court of committing the theft of electricity. It is alleged that the assessment of the amount to be paid by the petitioner has to be in terms of Section 126 of the Act and that too after giving show cause notice to the petitioner but in the present case, no formula has been disclosed by the respondents as to on what basis, the assessment has been made of the amount of Rs. 11,66,650/-.;