Writ petition against a recovery citation was disposed of without considering merits. Court directed petitioner to file a representation and stayed the execution of the citation pending the authority's decision.
Stayed the recovery citation; directed petitioner to file representation before the Authority within two weeks.
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Court No. - 39
Case :- WRIT - C No. - 22289 of 2020
Petitioner :- M/S Kamla Stone Works Respondent :- State Of U.P. And 4 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Madan Lal Srivastava,Narendra Kumar Tiwari Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.
Hon'ble Naheed Ara Moonis,J. Hon'ble Dinesh Pathak,J.
Heard learned counsel for the petitioner, Sri N. K. Tiwari, learned counsel appearing for respondent nos.4 and 5 and learned Standing Counsel appearing for respondent nos.1 to 3.
Instant writ petition has been filed seeking following reliefs :
“(i) To issue a writ, order or direction in the nature of certiorari quashing the impugned recovery citation dated 09.07.2018 (filed as Annexure No.2 to the accompanying writ petition) issued by the respondent no.3 in the name “M/s Kamla Stone Dala, near Dala”, to which the petitioner has no concern at all in any manner whatsoever.
(ii) To issue a writ, order or direction in the nature of mandamus directing the respondents not to give effect to the aforesaid impugned recovery citation dated 09.07.2018 and not to adopt any coercive measure pursuant to the aforesaid impugned recovery citation.
(iii) To issue any other writ, order or direction which this Hon'ble court may deem fit and proper in the circumstances of the case.
(iv) To award cost of the writ petition to the petitioner.”
It is submitted by learned counsel for the petitioner that petitioner is running a Crusher Plant and regularly paying electricity bills. To utter surprise of the petitioner, he has been served with recovery citation dated 09.07.2018 in the month of March 2019 qua recovery of amount Rs.13,40,965/-. On receipt of the said notice, petitioner has raised objection before respondent no.2 stating therein
that there is no electricity dues upon the petitioner in respect of electricity bills as has been raised by Electricity Department in respect of which representation is still pending for consideration. Moreover, even after issuance of aforesaid recovery citation, petitioner is regularly paying the electricity bills and there is no dues at all. As such, recovery citation issued against the petitioner is per se illegal and liable to be quashed.
Per contra, learned counsel appearing for respondent nos.4 and 5-Power Corporation submits that a revised electricity bill due against petitioner has been assessed of an amount Rs.10,31,511/-.
To this, learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that he is not aware about said revised assessment.
Learned counsel for the respondent-Power Corporation has supplied a copy of revised assessment notice to the learned counsel for the petitioner in the Court today itself.
Considering submissions of learned counsel for the parties but without entering into merits of the case, we hereby dispose of this writ petition with a direction to the petitioner to move an appropriate representation along with a copy of revised/amended recovery citation before the concerned Authority within a period of two weeks from today, which shall be considered and decided by the concerned Authority in accordance with law, within a period of four weeks thereafter.
For a period of six weeks from today or till final decision on petitioner's said representation, whichever is earlier, the recovery citation dated 09.07.2018 shall remain kept in abeyance.
It is made clear that if the petitioner fails to file representation within prescribed time as directed above, he shall not be entitled to get benefit of this order.
Order Date :- 4.1.2021 Manish Himwan
M/s Kamla Stone Works
State Of U.P.
Naheed Ara Moonis
Dinesh Pathak
As recorded by the court registry
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