The Supreme Court has said in a recent important decision that the electricity bill is owed to the previous owner of the house/ property and the electricity company is demanding that outstanding electricity bill from the new owner/buyer of the house/ property. Not supplying electricity without paying the outstanding electricity bill. The power company is not giving new connection of electricity supply to the new owner/ b uyer of the house/ property.So by doing this the electricity company is not doing anything wrong, the electricity company has the right to recover the outstanding electricity bill on the property/ house from the new owner/ buyer of the property/ house. The matter was related to the property/ house bought in the auction.The former owners of the house/ property purchased at auction by the petitioners owed electricity bills. Power companies had stopped power supply to the house/ properties due to arrears of electricity bills on the former owners of the house/ properties. Application for new connection for electricity supply by new buyers of house/ properties. But the power supply companies refused to give new electricity connections to the owners of the said properties bought in the auction. The electricity supply companies said that the electricity bill is outstanding on the said house/ property. Electricity will not be supplied until the outstanding electricity bill is paid. New buyers of house/ properties move court against this order of electricity supply companies. The petitioners said that the outstanding electricity bill cannot be recovered from the owners of the former house/ properties. The petitioners said that the arrears of the electricity bill were owed to the owners of the former house/ properties, for which they could not be held liable. The petitioners also submitted that they have not applied for further continuation of the earlier electricity connection.He has applied for a new electricity connection which has nothing to do with the old electricity connection. While hearing the petition, the Supreme Court said that the duty of supply of electricity is not complete. Duty to supply electricity subject to prescribed conditions and charges. Duty to supply electricity is in respect of the owner/ occupier of the house /property. As per the Electricity Act, 2003 when electricity is supplied the owner or occupier becomes the consumer only for the particular premises for which electricity is supplied. The court, however, held that the application made by the new house property buyers for electricity connection is different as the new application is not a further extension of the old connection for which the bill is outstanding. A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Justice DY Chandrachud and comprising Justice BS Narasimha and Justice Hima Kohli told the bench that the demand for outstanding electricity bill on the property/ house from the new buyers of the property/ house is justified as per the Electricity Act 2003. The argument of the petitioners is that as per Section 56(2) of the Electricity Act 2003, the outstanding electricity bill cannot be recovered after 2 years from the due date. The bench said that taking legal action for recovery of dues and disconnecting the electricity connection to create pressure on the consumer for recovery of dues are two different actions.The electricity supply company can take either of the two actions or both or together. In the present case the Court has granted relief to the petitioners considering that the matter is 20 years old. But for the future, the above interpretation of the Supreme Court can become a cause of trouble for those people who buy the house/property without checking the arrears of the electricity bill. If there is arrears of electricity bill on the purchased property/ house, then the new buyer will have to pay.
