"Large-scale theft of electricity is a very alarming problem faced by all the State Electricity Boards in our country, which is causing loss to the State revenue running in hundreds of crores of rupees every year. In our considered view, after proper adjudication of the cases of all those who are found to be guilty of the offence of committing theft of electricity; apart from the sentence of conviction, the court should invariably impose heavy fine making theft of electricity a wholly non-profitable venture. The most effective step to curb this tendency perhaps could be to discontinue the supply of electricity to those consumers temporarily or permanently who have been caught abstracting electricity in a clandestine manner on more than one occasion. The legislature may consider incorporating this suggestion as a form of punishment by amending Section 39 of the Electricity Act, 1910."

These observations made by the Supreme Court in Jagmodhan Mehatabsing Gujaral v. State of Maharashtra reported in (2006) 8 SCC 629 will set the tone for deciding the issues raised in these writ petitions questioning the vires of the amendment made to the Electricity Act, 2003 and the Regulat