Court No. - 29
Case :- WRIT - C No. - 23754 of 2019 Petitioner :- Mohammad Yaseen Respondent :- State Of U P And 2 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Rajesh Yadav Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.,Pranjal Mehrotra
Hon'ble Pankaj Mithal,J. Hon'ble Saral Srivastava,J.
Heard Sri Rajesh Yadav, learned counsel for the petitioner and Sri Pranjal Mehrotra, learned counsel for respondent no.3.
The petitioner has preferred this petition against the recovery citation dated 29.06.2019 by which a sum of Rs.10,00,925/- are being recovered from him as electricity dues.
Sri Pranjal Mehrotra, was given time earlier to obtain instructions in the matter and to produce the original records relating to the aforesaid recovery. He has produced the original records.
The record reveals that the electricity connection of the petitioner was inspected on 31.07.2018 and on account of unauthorized use of electricity in the manner mentioned in the inspection report apart from lodging a First Information Report, a provisional assessment for use of electricity was done on 08.09.2018. The same was sent to the petitioner by registered post.
Since no one has appeared in response to the said provisional assessment on the date of hearing, a final order of assessment was passed on 15.10.2018 and petitioner was directed to pay a sum of Rs. 8,00,859/-. Thereafter, by adding compounding fee of Rs. 2 lacs in respect of the F.I.R., a demand of Rs.10,00,925/- was raised against the petitioner on the basis of which, the impugned recovery has been issued.
Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that the F.I.R which was lodged against the petitioner is dated 06.12.2018 and, therefore, the checking report cannot be of date 31.07.2018.
We have perused the aforesaid checking report and the averments made in the F.I.R. dated 06.12.2018 and find that the aforesaid F.I.R. is in respect of a different incident. It has been lodged on the basis of the checking report which was done by a team of different persons than those involved in making inspection on 31.07.2018.
In view of aforesaid facts and circumstances, as the complete procedure for raising the demand in issuing the recovery citation has been followed on the basis of checking report dated 31.07.2018, there is no error or illegality in issuing the recovery citation.
If the petitioner is not satisfied by the assessment, remedy lies in filing an appeal under Section 127 of the Electricity Act, 2003 to challenge the final assessment dated 15.10.2018.
In view of aforesaid facts and circumstances, the writ petition is
disposed off.
Order Date :- 26.8.2019 Sattyarth