This order shall dispose of abovementioned revision petitions as the facts and the point of law involved in them are the same. -2- Complainants, who are the petitioner before us, filed the complaint before the District Forum alleging that the electricity connection was arbitrarily and wrongly disconnected inspite of the fact that they were in continuous use of electricity since 1982. Petitioner had made all the payments towards outstanding dues. The electricity connection was disconnected on 18.11.1998 on the basis of orders passed by the District Magistrate, Muzaffar Nagar. District Forum allowed the complaint and directed the petitioner to restore the electricity connection within 1 month; compensation of Rs.10,000/- was ordered to be paid along with Rs.2,000/- for mental agony and Rs.1,000/- by way of litigation costs. Respondents filed separate appeals before the State Commission. The State Commission by the impugned order has set aside the order passed by the District Forum and held that the petitioners being trespassers were not entitled to the continuation of supply of electricity and as such District Magistrate ordered to discontinue the supply of electricity. -3- Counsel for the respondents was directed to put on record copy of the order passed by the District Magistrate and also to pay costs of Rs.2,500/- to the respondent for the adjournment taking. Counsel for the respondents has neither paid the costs nor filed the order of the District Magistrate. Respondents have not produced any order on the file by which the petitioners had been declared to be trespassers on the land. Counsel for the petitioner has put on record Annexure P-11 (page-158), which is an application filed by Ram Kumar, Sarpanch of the village, on the margins of which the District Magistrate has written “Disconnect immediately without any further delay”. Electricity authorities are bound by an order passed by the District Magistrate in quasi judicial proceedings between the parties. The executive order arbitrary written on the margins of the application to disconnect, cannot be taken to be a legal order. The same is totally arbitrary. Order passed by State Commission based on an illegal order passed by the District Magistrate cannot be sustained. -4- Revision petition is allowed with costs which are assessed at Rs.10,000/-. Order passed by the State Commission, under the circumstances, is set aside and that of the District Forum is restored.
......................JASHOK BHANPRESIDENT ......................B.K. TAIMNIMEMBER | |