AMARESHWAR SAHAY, J. - (1.) THE prayer of the petitioner in this writ application is for direction upon respondents Damodar Valley Corporation (hereinafter called as D.V.C. in short for convenience) to give incentive to the petitioner in terms of Clause 9.1 of the new HT Supply Tariff effective from 01/09/2000 for the energy consumed by the petitioner during off peak hours, i.e. 00.00 hours to 16.00 hours of the day by charging energy charges at the 65% of the normal energy rate without installation of T.O.D. Meter and on the basis of reading recorded by the existing Electric Mechanical Meter with Printo - Maxi Graph (PMG) at an interval of 15 minutes by manually calculating the rebate and for quashing the letter dated 14/03/2000, issued by respondent no. 3 The Chief Engineer (Commercial), D.V.C. asking the petitioner to pay the retrenched amount of Rs. 16,86,645/ - adjusted by the petitioner towards rebate in terms of Clause 9.1 of the new tariff.
(2.) THE case of the petitioner, as made out, is that the petitioner is engaged in manufacturing of Steel Ingots, M.S. Rounds, Ferro Alloys etc. and its manufacturing plant is situated in Ramgarh Industrial Area at Marar in the District of Hazaribagh. The manufacturing unit of the petitioner falls under the area of D.V.C. In the year 1989, the petitioner entered into an agreement with D.V.C. for supply of electrical energy in bulk at 33,000 volts. At the time of entering into the agreement, the contract demand of the petitioner was 4000 KVA, which was subsequently increased to 5000/ - KVA from 01/11/1993 and it further increased to 8000/ -from 01/09/1995 but subsequently, it was reduced to 6000/ -KVA from 08/01/1999. The D.V.C. issued of letter dated 12/05/2000 to the petitioner, intimating revision of power supply tariff. The petitioner by its letter dated 30/08/2000 to the D.V.C. requested to install a TOD Meter in its premises for availing concessional tariff for off peak hours. In terms of Clause 9.1 of the new electricity tariff for HT supply, which was made effective from 01/09/2000 the HT consumer having contract demand below 100 MVA was to fulfill certain conditions to avail incentive for energy consumed by it during off peak hours. The off peak hours has been defined under Section 9.1 (g) which is for a period of continuous 16 hours in a day starting from 00.00 hours to 16.00 hours.
(3.) ACCORDING to the petitioner, in spite of the request made by him, no T.O.D. Meter was installed. On 07/09/2000, the D.V.C. informed the petitioner that it has formulated a new scheme under which all existing meters will be replaced with new generation micro -processor based solid state tariff meter.;