•Court determines Civil Liability of Rs. 8.99 lakhs and Imposes Fine of Rs. 10000/- for Power Theft
New Delhi, Dec. 4, 2019 : In a major development today, the Hon’ble Special Electricity Court, Rohini sentenced a power thief, Mr. Manoj son of Mr. Ramesh Kumar to 6 months imprisonment. The convict was indulged in power theft for E-Rickshaw in Jahangir Puri Area. He was involved in illegal charging of 19 Rickshaws, 650 watt each.
The thief was convicted u/s 135 of Indian Electricity Act. 2003.
Hon’ble Additional Sessions Judge, Shri. Sunil Rana, Special Electricity Court, Rohini also determined the civil liability at Rs.8.99 Lakhs and imposed a fine of Rs.10,000/- on the thief. The court strongly held on deterrence perspective that “Sentence passed by Hon’ble Court has to act as a deterrent to others in the society, who may be indulging in similar offences or may presume that such offences go unpunished. Hence, a lenient view in such cases can send a wrong message to the society and therefore, ends of justice would be served”.
Commenting on the judgement, Mr. Ganesh Srinivasan, CEO, Tata Power-DDL said, "We at Tata Power Delhi Distribution work diligently towards providing our consumers with 24x7 power supply but at the same time have to bear the brunt of electricity theft which hampers our services. We believe that unscrupulous consumers who indulge in power theft should be dealt with the highest level of strictness. We laud the judgement of the Hon’ble Special Electricity Court and appeal to all consumers to take legitimate electricity connections and pay their bills on time to avail uninterrupted power supply."