Court No. - 32
Case :- WRIT - C No. - 25358 of 2018 Petitioner :- Ram Asare Yadav Respondent :- State Of U P And 4 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Vinay Kumar Upadhyay,Pramod Bhardwaj Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.,Abhishek Srivastava,Mahboob Ahmad
Hon'ble Shashi Kant Gupta,J. Hon'ble Ajit Kumar,J.
This writ petition, inter alia, has been filed for the following reliefs;
"(I) Issue a writ order or direction in the nature of certiorari quashing the impugned undated Provisional Assessment prepared by Executive Engineer, Urban Electricity Distribution Circle-2, Bamrauli, Allahabad in pursuance of checking report dated 5.07.2018 (Annexure no. 1)."
The main grievance of the petitioner is that no opportunity whatsoever has been given to the petitioner and straightaway demand of Rs. 118350/- has been raised against him as such the demand raised is per se illegal and cannot be sustained.
Mr. Mahboob Ahmad, learned counsel for the Electricity Department has submitted that an inspection was made of the premises in questions on 5.7.2018 and the petitioner was found committing theft of electricity, as such, provisional assessment of Rs. 118350/- was made against the petitioner and the petitioner was served a notice on 12.7.2018 enclosing therewith a copy of the provisional assessment order dated 13.7.2018 directing the petitioner to file his objection within 15 days, as such, it cannot be said that no opportunity is being given to the petitioner. He further produced a copy of the covering letter dated 13.7.2018 issued by the Executive Engineer, Respondent No. 3, which is taken on record.
Learned counsel for the petitioner has strongly refuted the averments made by Sri Mahboob Ahmad, learned counsel for the Electricity Department and stated that he has not received any notice regarding the provisional assessment.
Be that as it may, it is open for the petitioner to file his objections against the provisional assessment within a period of 15 days from today. In case any objection is filed within 15 days from today, the same shall be decided by the Respondent No. 3, Executive Engineer after considering the objections and giving opportunity of hearing to the petitioner in this regard. The petitioner may appear on 17.8.2018 at 11 A.M. before the Respondent No. 3, Executive Engineer along with his objections and adduce evidence, if any, in support of his contention. The Respondent No. 3, thereafter, shall pass the final order by a speaking order after considering the objections of the petitioner as well as the contention raised by the petitioner.
Needless to mention here that in case the petitioner is aggrieved with the final order, if any, passed against the petitioner, it will be open for the petitioner to file an appeal before the concerned authority under Section 127 of the Electricity Act, 2003 in accordance with law.
With this observation, the writ petition stands disposed of.
Order Date :- 27.7.2018 vinay