Supreme Court Seeks Report From APTEL On Complaint About Exorbitant Costs & Refusal To Allow E-Filing

The Supreme Court (on January 18) has issued a notice in a matter raising concerns with respect to the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity imposing costs from Rs.20,000/- to Rs.25,000/-, even if there is a delay of one day or more than that.

Apart from this, the petitioner has voiced his concern that despite a direction from the Top Court to permit e-filling, the same is not permitted. The petitioner has further cited this as a cause of delay in filing the proceedings.

Accordingly, the bench of B.R. Gavai and Sandeep Mehta has issued notice to the Registrar of the Electricity Tribunal seeking a report with respect to this aspect.

In the instant matter, the tribunal had imposed a cost of Rs.25,000/- for a delay of three days in filing the reply. The Tribunal had observed:

"Such requests not only disable us from striving to achieve the objective of the Act to dispose of the Appeal within 180 days but also results in needless wastage of precious court time, which can be more usefully spent in hearing Appeals on merits."

However, before the Top Court, the appellant (Bangalore Electricity Supply Company Limited) clarified that it is not aggrieved by an individual order and voiced its concerns regarding the aforementioned issues. 

Case Title: BANGALORE ELECTRICITY SUPPLY COMPANY LIMITED vs. AIKYAM HOLDINGS PRIVATE LIMITED., Diary No.- 728 - 2024

Click here to read/ download the order