Court No. - 39
Case :- WRIT - C No. - 24970 of 2020 Petitioner :- Ramesh Kumar Respondent :- State Of U.P. And 4 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Dharmendra Kumar Mishra,Rajesh Kumar,Rakesh Kumar Pandey Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.,Mahboob Ahmad Hon'ble Naheed Ara Moonis,J. Hon'ble Dinesh Pathak,J.
Heard learned counsel for the petitioner, learned Standing Counsel on behalf of respondents no. 1, 2 & 5 and Shri Narendra Kumar Tiwari, learned counsel appearing on behalf of respondents no. 3 & 4.
The instant petition has been filed seeking following reliefs :
"(i) Issue a writ, order or direction in the nature of Certiorari quashing the impugned Recovery Citation dated 19.12.2019 issued by the concern respondent no. 5/Tehsildar, Tehsil Sadar, Fatehour sum of Rs.500000/- as well as demand notice dated 17.08.2020 issued by the respondent no. 4 (Contained in Annexure Nos. 8 & 10 to this writ petition), (ii) Issue a writ, order or direction in the nature of mandamus commanding and directing the respondent no. 4 not to adopt any coercive measure against the petitioner in pursuance of the Recovery Citation dated 19.12.2019 issued by the concern respondent no.5/Tehsildar, Tehsil Sadar, Fatehpur sum of Rs.500000/- as well as demand notice dated 17.08.2020 issued by the respondent no. 4 or provide the No Dues Certificate to the petitioner."
Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that earlier the petitioner had approached this Court against the coercive measure taken by the electricity department for demand of electricity dues by filing a writ petition being Writ-C No. 16320 of 2019. A Coordinate Bench of this Court has passed a detailed order on 21.05.2019 which is quoted herein below :-
"Heard learned counsel for the petitioner and Sri Mahboob Ahmad, learned counsel appearing for Purvanchal Vidyut Vitran Nigam Ltd.
The petitioner, by means of this petition, is seeking a direction commanding the respondents not to adopt any coercive measures to realise any electricity dues from him as his electricity was permanently disconnected in the year 2015.
Sri Mahboob Ahmad, learned counsel for respondents very fairly accepts that he has received instructions that the electricity of the petitioner has been treated to have been permanently disconnected in the year 2015 though no such certificate of permanent disconnection was issued.
Accordingly, the demand of Rs.13,02,220/- has been revised and as on date only a sum of Rs.5,500/- is payable by the petitioner vide Office Memorandum dated 17.05.2019.
Learned counsel for the petitioner is ready and willing to pay a sum of Rs.5,500/- provided no further recovery may be made from him.
In view of the aforesaid facts and circumstances, as according to the instructions of Sri Mahboob Ahmad, only a sum of Rs. 5,500/- is due and payable by the petitioner, petition is disposed of with the direction to the petitioner to deposit the aforesaid amount within a period of 2 weeks from today and on the deposit of the said amount, no further recovery shall be made against the petitioner in respect of the electricity charges as his electricity connection has been disconnected permanently in the year 2015. Direction is also issued to the respondents to issue a permanent disconnection certificate to the petitioner and a no dues certificate.
With the aforesaid observations, writ petition stands disposed off."
Submission of learned counsel for the petitioner is that in compliance of the aforesaid order dated 21.05.2019, the petitioner has already deposited a sum of Rs.5,500/- which was payable by the petitioner and as such there was electricity charges due upon him but to his utter surprise, he received another recovery notice dated 18.07.2020 with respect to recovery of Rs. 13,07,745/-. It is further contended by the learned counsel for the petitioner that once the order dated 21.05.2016 passed which itself shows that no recovery shall be made from the petitioner, the present recovery notice dated 18.07.2020 is in teeth of the order passed by this Court on 21.05.2019.
Learned counsel appearing on behalf of Power Corporation fairly conceded that the said recovery notice is not in consonance with the order passed by this Court on 21.05.2019. He could not justify the action taken by respondent no. 3 for issuance of a fresh demand notice.
Under the aforesaid facts and circumstances, we dispose of the present petition with a direction to the petitioner to file a representation before the respondent no. 3 (Executive Engineer, Purvanchal Vidyut Vitran Nigam Ltd., Vidyut Vitran Khand-1, Fatehur) within two weeks from today, which shall be considered and appropriate order shall be passed as expeditiously as possible, strictly in accordance with law taking into account the earlier order as passed by this Court dated 21.05.2019.
Till any decision on the representation, which shall be filed by the petitioner as stated above, the recovery notice dated 18.07.2020 shall not be given effect to.
Order Date :- 8.1.2021/VR/