IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) WEDNESDAY, THE FIFTEENTH DAY OF APRIL TWO THOUSAND AND NINE PRESENT THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE N.V. RAMANA WRIT PETITION NO : 6251 of 2009 Between: Daka Tirupal Reddy, S/o. Venka Reddy, M/s. Sri Venkateswar Mini Rice Mill, Budem Gunta Village, Kavali Rural Mandal, SPR Nellore District. ..... PETITIONER AND 1 The A.P. Southern Power Distribution Co., Ltd. Rep by its Chief Divisional Manager, Tirupathi, Chittoor District. 2 The A.P. Southern Power Distribution Co., Ltd. Rep by Superintendent Engineer, Nellore, S.P.R. Nellore District. 3 The A.P. Southern Power Distribution Co., Ltd. Rep by Divisional Engineer, Kavali, S.P.R. Nellore District. .....RESPONDENTS Petition under Article 226 of the constitution of India praying that in the circumstances stated in the Affidavit filed herein the High Court will be pleased to issue a writ, order or direction more particularly one in the nature of Writ of mandamus, to declare the action on the part of the respondents in changing the category of supplying the energy from industrial to Agriculture i.e. HT to LT Category, without any notice to petitioner amounts to erroneous, arbitrary and violative of Art. 14 and 21 of the constitution of India besides being contrary to agreement entered with the respondents Board and violative of principles of natural justice and consequently direct the respondents to supply the energy as usual under Industrial Category to the petitioner's Mini Rice MIll namely M/s Sri Venkateswara Mini Rice Mill situated at Budemgunta Village, Kavali Rural Mandal, Nellore District. Counsel for the Petitioner: MR.T.C.KRISHNAN Counsel for the Respondent No.: MR.O.MANOHER REDDY The Court made the following : ORDER: This writ petition is filed by the petitioner questioning the action of the respondents in changing the category of supply of energy from Industrial to Agriculture i.e. from HT to LT without any notice to him. He has also sought for a direction to the respondents to supply the energy under Industrial Category to his rice mill. The case of the petitioner is that he is running a rice mill in the name and style of M/s.Sri Venkateswara Rice Mill at S.No.643 Budem Gunta Village, Kavali Rural Mandal. Vide Memo No.SE/O/NLR?CM D.No.504 of 1998 dated 18.8.1998, the respondent Company agreed to supply the electricity energy to his rice mill under HT category. While the matters stood thus, without any notice, on 17.3.2009, the respondent Company changed the category from HT to LT and supplied the power only for 7 hours to his ricemill. The grievance of the petitioner is that even though the respondent company is continuing the power supply as usual under HT category to other similarly situated units, for the reasons best known to it, without any notice, changed the power supply to his ricemill arbitrarily and thus he filed this writ petition seeking appropriate directions. On the last occasion, when the matter came up, the learned standing counsel for the respondent company submitted that if the petitioner is willing to pay the usual charges for laying a separate lane to his rice mill, they are willing to supply the power to the petitioner under HT category. Therefore, this Court directed the learned counsel for the petitioner to verify whether the petitioner is willing to pay the amount demanded by the respondent for laying a separate lane to his ricemill. On instructions, the learned counsel for the petitioner today submitted that the petitioner is willing to pay the amount as demanded by the respondent company for supplying the energy under HT category. In the circumstances, after hearing the learned counsel for the petitioner and the learned standing counsel for the respondent A.P.Southern Power Distribution Company Limited, the petitioner is directed to approach the 3rd respondent competent authority seeking change of the supply category i.e. from LT to HT and express his willingness to pay the necessary amounts for laying necessary line. If any such representation is made, the 3rd respondent shall consider the same and pass appropriate orders expeditiously. With the above direction, the writ petition is disposed of. N.V.RAMANA,J Dt.15.4.2009 Note: Furnish CC in 2 days (B/o) msv