Indian Railways vs West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company Limited

Judicial Analysis Court Copy Headnote Facts Arguments Court observation

2026 Supreme(SC) 510

DIPANKAR DATTA, SATISH CHANDRA SHARMA
Indian Railways – Appellant
Versus
West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company Limited – Respondent

Advocates appeared:
For the Appellant(s) : Mr. Tushar Mehta, Solicitor General Ms. Aishwarya Bhati, Ld. A.S.G. Mr. S.D.Sanjay, Ld. A.S.G. Mr. Gaurang Bhushan, Adv. Mr. Madhav Sinhal, Adv. Mrs. Sansriti Pathak, Adv. Mrs. Bani Dikshit, Adv. Mr. Bhuvan Kapur, Adv. Mr. Siddharth V.thakur, Adv. Mr. Amrish Kumar, AOR
For the Respondent(s):Mr. Sajan Poovayya, Sr. Adv. Ms. Ishita Jain, AOR Mr. Anand Kumar Shrivastava, Adv. Ms. Shruti Kanodia, Adv. Mr. Shivam Sinha, Adv. Mr. Ravi Nair, Adv. Mr. Mudassir, Adv. Mr. Palash Maheshwari, Adv. Mr. Parag Tripathi, Sr. Adv. Ms. Suparna Srivastava, Adv. Ms. Surbhi Gupta, Adv. Mr. Hitakshi Jain, Adv. Ms. Bhairavi, Adv. Mr. S. K. Verma, AOR Mr. G Umapathy, Sr. Adv. Mr. Aditya Singh-1, AOR Ms. Priyanka Singh, Adv. Mr. C.S. Vaidyanathan, Sr. Adv. Mr. Aniket Prasoon, Adv. Mr. Pratiksha Chaturvedi, Adv. Mr. Vinit Kumar, Adv. Mr. Aman Sheikh, Adv. Mr. Adarsh Kumar Bhardwaj, Adv. Mr. Shubham Singh, Adv. Mr. Siddharth Mittal, AOR Mr. Gaurav Agrawal, Sr. Adv. Mr. Ashok Kumar Tripathi, Adv. Mr. Sarthak Pathak, Adv. Mr. Umesh Kumar Shukla, Adv. Mrs. Srabani Mukherjee, Adv. Mr. Shekhar Banerjee, Adv. Mr. Gajendra Singh Negi, Adv. Mr. Md Shah Minhajuddin, Adv. Mr. Md Adil Khan, Adv. Mr. Subhro Prokas Mukherjee, AOR Mr. Nitin Saluja, AOR Mr. Anup Kumar, AOR Mrs. Neha Jaiswal, Adv. Ms. Pragya Choudhary, Adv. Ms. Achint Priya, Adv. Mr. Shivam Kumar, Adv. Ms. Arshi, Adv. Mr. Jaideep Gupta, Sr. Adv. Mr. Sabarish Subramanian, AOR Mr. S.vallinayagam, Adv. Mr. Veshal Tyagi, Adv. Mr. Riddhi Bose, Adv. Ms. Racheeta Chawla, Adv. Ms. Rishi Agarwal, Adv. Ms. Sampriti Baksi, Adv. Mr. Vishnu Unnikrishnan, Adv. Ms. Mandakini Ghosh, AOR Mr. Vikas Upadhyay, AOR Ms. Ankita Kashyap, Adv. Mr. Ranveer Singh, Adv. Mr. Shiva Narang, Adv. Ms. Sunieta Ojha, AOR Mr. Anand K Ganesan, Adv. Mr. Nikunj Dayal, AOR Mr. Amal Nair, Adv. Ms. Devyani Prasad, Adv. Mr. Sandeep Kumar Mahapatra, Adv. Ms. Mrinmayee Sahu, AOR Mr. Sugam Kumar Jha, Adv. Mr. Sreedas Kp, Adv. Ms. Amruta Padhi, Adv. Mr. Pitambar Acharya, Advocate General Mr. Srisatya Mohanty, AOR Ms. Sakshi Mittal, Adv. Mr. G. Umapathy, Sr. Adv. Mr. Rutwik Panda, AOR Ms. Nikhar Berry, Adv. Ms. Anshu Malik, Adv. Mr. Maninder Singh, Sr. Adv. Mr. Prabhas Bajaj, AOR Mr. Rithvik Mathur, Adv. Mr. Rishabh Yadav, Adv. Mr. Dhananjaya Mishra, AOR Mr. Bharadwaj S., AOR Ms. Pratiti Rungta, Adv. Mr. Sumit Pragal, Adv. Mr. Prashant Singh, Adv. Mr. Shivankur Shukla, Adv. Ms. Amita Singh Kalkal, AOR Mr. Tushar Mehta, Solicitor General Mr. Lokesh Sinhal, Sr. A.A.G. Mr. Shekhar Raj Sharma, A.A.G. Mr. Samar Vijay Singh, AOR Mr. Madhav Sinhal, Adv. Ms. Nidhi Narwal, Adv. Ms. Srishti Jain, Adv. Mr. Nikunj Gupta, Adv. Mr. Sarthak Arya, Adv. Mr. Amit Ojha, Adv. Mr. Aman Dev Sharma, Adv. Ms. Sabarni Som, Adv. Mr. Gaj Singh, Adv. Mr. Abhishek Kumar, Adv. Mr. Nived Veerapaneni, Adv. Ms. Shubham Mudgil, Adv. M/s Trilegal Advocates On Record, AOR Mr. K. Parameshwar, Sr. Adv. Mr. Udit Gupta, Adv. Mr. Vyom Chaturvedi, Adv. Ms. Sneha Singh, Adv. Ms. Pragya Gupta, Adv. Ms. Prachi Gupta, Adv. Ms. Veda Singh, Adv. Mr. Prasad Hegde, Adv. M/S. Udit Kishan And Associates, AOR

Table of Content
1. introduction to electricity act appeals (Para 1 , 2 , 3 , 4)
2. undisputed factual and procedural background (Para 5 , 6)
3. railways arguments on ddl status (Para 7 , 8 , 9)
4. discoms counterarguments on licensee status (Para 10 , 11 , 12 , 13)
5. formulation of four determinative issues (Para 14)
6. railways network not a distribution system (Para 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37)
7. appropriate government does not confer ddl status (Para 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50)
8. consumer liable for surcharge despite ddl claim (Para 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59)
9. proposed amendments confirm no current exemption (Para 60 , 61 , 62 , 63 , 64 , 65 , 66 , 67 , 68 , 69 , 70)
10. appeals dismissed with surcharge liability (Para 71 , 72 , 73 , 74)

JUDGMENT :

SATISH CHANDRA SHARMA, J.

1. This is a batch of statutory Appeals under Section 125 of the Electricity Act, 2003 (for short, hereinafter referred to as “The Electricity Act”) assailing the common judgment and order dated 12.02.2024 passed by the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity at New Delhi, (“APTEL”), i

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2026 Supreme(SC) 510

DIPANKAR DATTA, SATISH CHANDRA SHARMAIndian Railways – AppellantVersusWest Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company Limited – Respondent

Cases Referred (8)

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DIPANKAR DATTA, SATISH CHANDRA SHARMA
Indian Railways – Appellant
Versus
West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company Limited – Respondent