Petitioner is a tenant of the building No. 438 in Ward No. 15 of Kottayam Municipality which belongs to a local Mosque. The former tenant Madhavan Pillai died about 10 years back. The electric connection in the building with Consumer No. 871 is still in the name of the above mentioned Madhavan Pillai. The bills are issued in the name of Madhavan Pillai and they were being paid by the petitioner.

2. Ext. P1 is a provisional invoice card issued by the 1st respondent addressed to K. Madhavan Pillai in January, 1986 fixing the monthly energy charges at Rs. 297/-. Under Ext. P2 dated 24-9-1988 by another provisional invoice card the rate was revised as Rs. 451/- per mensem. According to the petitioner, he had been remitting the amount as per the rate fixed under Exts. P1 and P2 upto December, 1988. Ext. P5 dated 4-1-1989 is a copy of receipt for payment of charges for the month of December, 1988. Thereafter the petitioner received Ext. P4 bill on 16-1-1989 by which he was directed to pay an additional amount of Rs. 21737/- as charges for supply of electricity energy for the period from July 1986 to August 1988. Ext. P4 is also addressed to K. Madhavan Pillai.

3. On receipt of