1. The Chief Engineer, Kerala State Electricity Board, its Special Officer (Revenue), and the Deputy Chief Engineer are the appellants before us in this Writ Appeal that impugns the judgment of a learned Single Judge dated 02.03.2022 in WP(C).No.10199 of 2014.

2. The brief facts necessary for disposal of this Writ Appeal are as follows:
The respondent writ petitioner was an HT consumer under the Electrical Section, Beypore bearing consumer code 5/519, with a contract demand of 65 KVA. The factory of the writ petitioner was under lockout from August to December 1995 and while the activities restarted immediately thereafter, the writ petitioner could not achieve the required levels of production for various reasons, including labour unrest, nonavailability of power supply owing to power cut etc. For the period from January 1995 to October 1998, the writ petitioner was served with a demand notice seeking payment of arrears of R