The court upheld the reasonableness of the methodology for calculating electricity charges during the COVID-19 lockdown, as per the provisions of the Electricity Act, 2003 and the Tamil Nadu Electricity Supply Code.

JUDGMENT :

(Prayer: Writ Petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India to issue Writ of Certiorarified Mandamus calling for the records of the 4th respondent relating to the impugned order of the 4th respondent unnumbered and dated 04.05.2020, which was subsequently issued as a press release on 05.04.2020, and quash the same and consequently direct the 4th respondent to regenerate the 2 bi-monthly bills for the period covered under the impugned order, based on units consumed in the previous month billing as one bi-monthly bill and the balance units consumed out of the total presently metered units as another bi-monthly bill, for all the LT Domestic Consumers under the 4th respondent who have had bi-monthly consumption under 500 units in any of the 3 preceding billing cycles prior to the lockdown.)

1. The petitioner has filed this Public Interest Litigation challenging the impugned order of the fourth respondent, Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation Limited (TANGEDCO). The impugned order of the fourth respondent is dated 4th May 2020. Briefly the order has issued the modalities of calculating the electricity consumption charges for the two bi-monthly periods of March 2020-April 2020 and May 2020-June 2020. This order has necessitated in view of the fact that no reading was possible during April 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the resultant lockdown from 25th March 2020. It was impossible for the reading to be taken for the first bi-monthly of March-April period as it involved deployment of substantial number of staff to visit households to take down the reading. Therefore, it was decided that the bi-monthly charges for this period for Low Tension (LT) domestic consumers be paid as per the previous month billing (PMC) charges and that the next reading equally divided as two bi-monthly billing for the months of March-April and May-June and the charges would be payable after deducting the amount already paid for the bi-monthly March-April.

2. The impugned press release which brought the aforesaid decision of the fourth respondent to the notice of the consumer is appositely referred below along with its illustrations.

PRESS RELEASE

“KIND ATTENTION OF TANGEDCO’s LOW TENSION CONSUMERS

In view of the COVID-19 outbreak, there has been lock down since 24.03.2020 midnight. Now, the Government of India has announced extension of lockdown for a further period of 2 weeks from 04.05.2020 i.e., upto 17.05.2020. The lockdown has been accordingly continued in Tamil Nadu with some guidelines with effect from 04.05.2020 to 17.05.2020.

In this connection, as per the direction of the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Tamil nadu, the Hon’ble Minister for Electricity and Prohibition, Go TN held a review meeting in TANGEDCO on 04.05.2020 and issued the following instructions:

(a) LT Industrial and Commercial consumers who have been billed under Previous Month Billing (PMC) can make payment upto 22.05.2020 based on PMC or by way of revised bill for actual consumption by furnishing the self assessment reading.

(b) In case of LT domestic consumers wherever billing is made under PMC due to COVID-19, the next reading will be taken only on the next due date. Hence the billing is to be made for two bi-monthly readings. The payment made for the PMC will be adjusted after ascertaining the reading during the next assessment of the respective CC bills. An illustration is given hereunder.

A consumer who has been billed under PMC during COVID-19 and the actual reading taken during next assessment month, the manner of detailed billing in such cases is outlined below: