Section 145 of the Electricity Act, 2003 bars the jurisdiction of civil court in matters related to electricity bills and connections.

Sudhanshu Dhulia, J. (Oral)

1. List revised. Case called out twice. None appears for the appellant/plaintiff.

2. The appellant was the plaintiff in court below and had filed a suit which was registered as Suit No. 38 of 2005. According to the plaintiff/appellant she had taken an electricity connection from Uttarakhand Power Corporation being No. 001075 and has been paying the bill regularly till 1990. In July, 1990 the plaintiff sold the land on which a tube-well was installed to another person. Thereafter the land changed hands. All the same, for the electricity connection to the tube-well, the plaintiff had moved an application with the Power Corporation for disconnection and the same has been done. Subsequently, a bill of 67000/- was issued by the Power Corporation which was challenged by the appellant by filing a suit.

3. After giving notice to the defendants, including the Power Corporation the trial court, inter alia, framed the following issues :-

“1. Whether the plaintiff had paid the entire bills till July, 1990 and subsequently had directed the Power Corporation to disconnect the electricity connection.”

4. Apart from this, there were other eight issues framed by the trial court.

5. Regarding the main issue, as stated above, the court below gave the finding that there was an electricity connection still continuing and the plaintiff has not paid the electricity bill and hence the suit was dismissed. Aggrieved, the plaintiff moved an appeal which was also dismissed. Therefore, the plaintiff has filed the present second appeal.

6. Heard learned counsels for the defendants. The counsel for defendant no. 1 has placed before this Court Section 145 of the Electricity Act, 2003. At the time when the suit was instituted and even prior to that for the period when the electricity bill was given to the plaintiff, which was challenged by the plaintiff, the Electricity Act, 2003 had come to the force. Section 145 clearly bars the jurisdiction of civil court in such matters. Section 145 reads as under :-

“145. Civil court not to have jurisdiction. – No civil court shall have jurisdiction to entertain any suit or proceeding in respect of any matter which an assessing officer referred to in section 126 or an appellate authority referred to in section 127 or the adjudicating officer appointed under this Act is empowered by or under this Act to determine and no injunction shall be granted by any court or other authority in respect of any action taken or to be taken in pursuance of any power conferred by or under this Act.”

7. Therefore, in the present case, the suit of the plaintiff was itself not maintainable as there was an express bar and, therefore, the matter was liable to be dismissed in view of Section 9 Code of Civil Procedure. Therefore, this Court finds that there is no substantial question of law on which this appeal can be admitted.

8. Second Appeal, therefore, is liable to be dismissed and is hereby dismissed.

9. No order as to costs.