Court No. - 1
Case :- WRIT - C No. - 42480 of 2019 Petitioner :- M/S Suchi Paper Mills Limited And Another Respondent :- State Of U.P. And 2 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Mayank Kumar Agrawal Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.,Krishna Agarawal
Hon'ble Ramesh Sinha,J. Hon'ble Ajit Kumar,J.
Heard Sri Shashi Nandan, learned Senior Advocate assisted by Sri Mayank Agrawal, learned counsel for the petitioners, learned Standing Counsel for the State respondent, Sri Krishna Agarawal, learned counsel for respondent nos. 2 & 3 and perused the record.
By means of this petition under Article 226 of the Constitution, the petitioners have prayed for following relief:
"(i) To issue a writ, order or direction in the nature of certiorari quashing & setting aside the bill dated 01.12.2019 (filed as Annexure No. 1 to this writ petition) issued by the respondent no. 3.
(ii) To issue a writ, order or direction in the nature of mandamus directing the respondent no. 2 & 3 not to realize the bill dated 01.12.2019 (filed as Annexure No. 1 to this writ petition)."
It has been vehemently urged by learned Senior Advocate that the petitioners prayed for exemption in electricity duty as per scheme after the judgment of Apex Court and the respondents are not justified in postponing the same and giving direction to the effect that the benefits shall be conferred w.e.f. January, 2020 only and accordingly he submits that the electricity bill with amount so calculated without any benefit of exemption by the respondents is totally erroneous and unsustainable.
Sri Krishna Agrawal, learned counsel for the respondents submits that the petitioners have already filed a writ petition before this Court being Civil Misc. Writ Petition 35015 of 2019, whereunder, an effective prayer has been made to the effect that benefit of exemption in electricity duty should be conferred upon the petitioner. He has placed Memo of that petition before this Court that contains following reliefs:
"(i) To issue a writ, order or direction in the nature of certiorari quashing and setting aside clause 7(vi) of the Notification No. 271/24-P-32018, Lucknow dated 05.02.2018 (filed as Annexure No. 1 to this writ petition) issued by the respondent no. 1 which restricts the petitioner to avail the exemption of electricity duty forthwith;
(ii) To issue a writ, order or direction in the nature of certiorari quashing and setting aside orders dated 25.07.19 passed by the respondent no. 3 (Order no. 864 III) (filed as Annexure No. 13 to this writ petition);
(iii) To issue a writ, order or direction in the nature of mandamus directing the respondents to refund, credit or adjust the amount of electricity duty realized from the petitioner since January, 2010 till July 2019 (pursuant to the notification dated 21.01.2010 & 05.02.2018 and the judgment and order delivered by the Hon'ble Apex Court in Civil Appeal No(s). 10448-10449 of 2017) in his regular consumption bills forthwith;
(iv) To issue a writ, order or direction in the nature of mandamus directing the respondents to pay the interest @ 18% per annum on the amount of electricity duty realized from the petitioner annum since the date of deposit till the date of refund payable to him as "exempted duty amount" amounting to Rs. 5,28,89,222 (duly certified by the respondent No. 2, vide its order dated 22.07.19."
From the perusal of prayer as has come to be raised in the earlier writ petition, in our considered opinion the relief which is claimed in the present writ petition, is substantially the same as in the pending writ petition. Thus, it was open for the petitioner to have filed an appropriate amendment application, if so advised, raising grievance against the new bill in the pending writ petition. Present writ petition cannot be entertained as being not maintainable as the facts and grounds of case raised herein are same as raised in the earlier writ petition and such this second writ petition is clearly barred under Rule 7 of Chapter XXII of the Rules of the Court, 1952.
Writ petition is accordingly dismissed with the aforesaid liberty.
Order Date :- 19.12.2019 IrfanUddin (Ajit Kumar,J.) (Ramesh Sinha,J.)