Supreme Court seeks assistance of Attorney General KK Venugopal in plea regarding interpretation of Sections 135, 145 of Electricity Act

Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to Attorney General of India, KK Venugopal seeking his assistance on a plea relating to Sections 135 and 145 of the Electricity Act of 2003 after Punjab and Haryana High Court had dismissed the an appeal relating to the same. .A Bench of Chief Justice of India NV Ramana and Justices AS Bopanna and Hrishikesh Roy said that the issues raised in the petition require the assistance of Attorney General. "Having heard learned counsel appearing for the petitioner and carefully perusing the material available on record, we are of the considered view that the points raised in these Special Leave Petitions require the assistance of Learned Attorney General for India," the Court observed in its order..The plea stemmed from proceedings initiated under Section 126 (on assessment) of the Electricity Act when two memos were issued by Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam demanding Rs. 27,129 for electricity theft and Rs 12,000 as compounded money from the petitioner.Similar memo was received by the father of the petitioner as well, demanding Rs 63,487. Civil suits were preferred by both the petitioner and his father and against the memos. The Nyayadhikari, Gram Nyayalaya of Rania allowed the father's suit and no appeal was preferred against the same by the Bijli Nigam. The suit preferred by the petitioner was, however, dismissed by the Civil Judge, Ellenabad. Appeal against the same was also dismissed by the Additional District Judge, Sirsa. The petitioner then preferred a Regular Second Appeal before the Punjab and Haryana High Court which dismissed the same citing Section 145 of the Electricity Act which bars civil courts from entertaining any suit or proceedings with respect to matters falling under Section 126 of the Electricity Act. .Advocate Pushpinder Singh, appearing for the petitioner told the Supreme Court that that there is a specific bar under Section 145 on the civil court to entertain the proceedings assessed under Sections 126 and 127 of the Act. However, in the cases of theft under section 135 of Electricity Act there is specific provision under Section 154 which has to be followed..The Bench then proceeded to issue notice to Attorney General and posted the case for hearing after three weeks. .[Read Order]