Petitions by captive power generating units dismissed

​Hyderabad: A two judge bench of the High Court at Hyderabad comprising Acting Chief Justice Dilip B Bhosale and Justice P Naveen Rao on Tuesday dismissed a batch of writ petitions questioning the validity of Section 3-B of Andhra Pradesh Electricity Duty Act.

The bench was dealing with a batch of petitions filed by captive power generating units of the twin States of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh complaining that the provisions to impose duty on consumption of electric energy vested with the government and not the captive power generating units.

Upholding the validity of the Act, “The power of State Legislature is to legislate on imposing duty on consumption of electricity is traceable to Entry 53 of List II in Schedule VII of the Constitution and such power is plenary. It cannot be circumscribed by any other legislation,” the bench said.

The bench pointed out that Sub-section 3 of Section 3-B of the Act vested power in the State to exempt generating company from payment of whole or part of the duty payable under sub section (1). The bench made clear that the court cannot direct to grant relaxation retrospectively and State cannot be burdened with the financial liability.