HC Expounds: Civil Court has no Jurisdiction to grant any Injunction in respect of an Action to be taken by the Authority under the Electricity Act

 

The Bombay High Court allowed the application filed under Section 9 read with Order VII Rule 11 of the Civil Procedure Code, for rejection of the Plaint. A single-judge bench of this Court comprising Hon’ble Justice Smt. M.S. Jawalkar held that Section 145 of the Electricity Act (“the act”) clearly bars the jurisdiction of the Civil Court from granting any injunction in respect of an action to be taken by the Authority under the said Act.

Brief Facts:

The present Revision Application was filed by the Maharashtra State Electricity Parashan Company Limited, being aggrieved by the order passed by the learned Joint Civil Judge Junior Division, Nagpur, below Exhibit No. 9 in Regular Civil Suit No. 574/2022. The application was filed under Section 9, read with Order VII Rule 11 of the Civil Procedure Code for rejection of the Plaint.

The Plaintiffs/Respondents filed the suit against the Defendant/Applicant for Declaration and Permanent Injunction. In this suit, the Plaintiffs challenged erecting and installing an electric tower to supply electricity from the generation plant to a specified destination. The Plaintiffs had also sought relief of temporary injunction against the Defendants with the prayer that the Defendants may be restrained from creating any third party interest in the Suit Property.

Contentions of the Defendants:

The contention of the Defendants was specifically that in view of the bar under Section 145 of the said Act, the Civil Court has no jurisdiction to entertain any Suit or Proceedings in respect of any matter of which Assessing Officer referred to in Section 126 or the Appellate Authority referred to in Section 127 or the Adjudicating Officer appointed under the said Act is empowered to determine, and any Court shall grant no injunction in respect of any action taken in pursuance of any power conferred by or under the said Act.

The Learned Counsel for the Applicants relied on the judgment of the Madras High Court in the case of A. Kaleur Rahman vs. P. Kanna reported in AIR OnLine 2019 Mad. 1751 and also the judgment of the Punjab and Haryana High Court in the case of Parminder Kaur @ Satinder Kaur vs. Punjab State Power Corporation Ltd. & another in R.S.A. No. 1664/2015 was decided on 22/04/2016.

Observations of the Court:

Considering the judgments cited by the learned Counsel for the Applicants, it was clear to this Court that Section 145 of the said Act bars the jurisdiction of the Civil Court from granting any injunction in respect of an action to be taken by the Authority under the said Act. Also, after referring to the sections, the view of the bench was that not only is the Suit or Proceedings before the Civil Court barred in respect of the matters under Section 126 or Section 127 or before the Adjudicating Officer under the Act, but the Suit or Proceedings before the Civil Court is also barred if an injunction is sought for to prevent or to direct any action to be taken by any Authority under the Act.

In the present case, the installation of towers for electricity supply is the Act done by the Authorities or Authorized Licensee under the said Act. Therefore, it was held that the suit for injunction restraining them from erecting any fresh tower for electricity supply falls within the bar of Section 145 of the said Act.

The decision of the Court: 

The Bombay High Court quashed the impugned order passed by the learned Joint Civil Judge Junior Division because the jurisdiction of the Civil Court is expressly barred under the provisions of Section 145 of the Act. 

Case Title: The Additional Executive Engineer vs Shri Kishor S/o Mohanlal Paliwal and others

Coram: Hon’ble Justice Smt. M.S. Jawalkar 

Case no.: CIVIL REVISION APPLICATION NO. 122/2022

Advocate for the Applicant: Shri M. Rajkondawar

Advocate for the Respondents: Shri P.S. Sahare

 Read Judgment;

 

 

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