Court No. - 3
Case :- WRIT - C No. - 16577 of 2021 Petitioner :- Ajuddhi Respondent :- State Of U.P. And 3 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Amit Kumar Gaur Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.,Baleshwar Chaturvedi
Hon'ble Naheed Ara Moonis,J. Hon'ble Saumitra Dayal Singh,J.
Heard Shri Amit Kumar Gaur, learned counsel for the petitioner and Shri Baleshwar Chaturvedi, learned counsel for the respondent.
Present petition has been filed to challenge the recovery citation dated 2.6.2021 issued by respondent no.4, against the petitioner.
According to the petitioner, he had applied for grant of benefit of One Time Settlement (in short 'OTS') by the respondent electricity department. After the OTS had been accepted on 28.3.2021, respondent no.4 has unilaterally issued another communication dated 6.4.2021 alleging further demand. Consequently, now, recovery citation for Rs. 94932/- has been issued against the petitioner.
Responding to the above, Shri Chaturvedi submits that the document/receipt of deposit dated 28.3.2021 (Annexure no.1 to the writ petition) relied on by the petitioner itself, on the face, discloses that it is a receipt of part deposit made against OTS sought by the petitioner. The petitioner had only deposited Rs. 32,837/-. There is no certificate of OTS issued to the petitioner. Later, on discrepancies and wrongful acts committed by certain officials of the respondent corporation were discovered. Then, communication dated 6.4.2021 was issued by the respondent no.4 to 47 consumers including the petitioner, who had been granted wrongful benefit upon receipt of part deposit dated 28.3.2021. However, the OTS application has remained pending till date.
In view of the above, on merits, no interference is warranted by this Court under Article 226 of the Constitution of India. However, in view of the fact that the petitioner had admittedly applied for OTS and made part deposit of the amount, the present petition is disposed of with a direction that respondent no.4 shall now proceed to pass final order on the application of the petitioner for grant of OTS. Such decision may be made within a period of three weeks from today and it shall be communicated to the petitioner at his address, by post.
For a period of one month from today, no coercive measure shall be adopted against the petitioner, pursuant to impugned recovery citation dated 2.6.2021. It is made clear that all further rights of the parties shall be governed by the order to be passed on the OTS application aforesaid.
Order Date :- 27.7.2021 Saurabh