JUDGMENT

Dipak Misra, J.

Leave granted in both the special leave petitions.

2. Assailing the judgment and order dated 28.3.2012 passed by the High Court of Orissa, Cuttack in WP(C) No. 23268 of 2011 whereby the Division Bench has quashed the appointment of the respondent No. 5 herein and further directed the present appellant to recover the amount paid to the 5th respondent towards honorarium, in a public interest litigation preferred by the 1st respondent, the present appeals, one by the Central Electricity Supply Utility of Odisha (CESU) and the other by the affected person have been preferred, by special leave. The factual matrix and the bedrock of challenge being similar we shall state the facts which are requisite to understand the controversy.

However, the description of the parties shall be in accordance with their rank ascribed to them in the appeal preferred by CESU.

3. The appellant-CESU has been created under Section 22 of the Electricity Act, 2003 (for brevity, “the Act”) passed by the Orissa Electricity Regulatory Commission (for short “the Commission”). CESU is a deemed licensee under the Act for the distribution of electricity in the Central Zone of Odisha. It is necessa