THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE GOPALA KRISHNA TAMADA Writ Petition No.26170 OF 2009 ORDER: 1 Petitioner is the owner of house bearing No.10-12-4/6, Rednam Gardens, Visakhapatnam and the said residential house was having three service connections. The middle portion of the said building was given on lease to one Bharathi and as the said Bharathi did not pay electricity charges to a tune of Rs.17,573/-, the service connection to the said portion was disconnected and the meter also was removed. Thereupon the said Bharathi raised a dispute before the District Consumer Forum, but the said dispute was dismissed for default. Pursuant thereto as neither the said tenant nor the owner i.e. the Petitioner have paid the said arrears, a notice was issued on 04.09.2008 by the Respondents to the Petitioner directing her to pay the arrears in an amount of Rs.17,573/-, failing which the other service connections also will be disconnected without any further notice. Because of the said threat posed by the Respondents, the said arrears were paid. Despite the same, as the meter has not been replaced and service connection was not restored, the Petitioner approached this court and filed the present Writ Petition. 2 Heard both sides. 3 No doubt, the Petitioner paid the said arrears, but that cannot be a ground for automatic restoration of the electric supply and the meter. When once the meter is removed, again the Petitioner has to make an application for fresh service connection and on payment of usual charges only the fresh service connection with meter will be provided. Had the said arrears been paid within the time, of course, question of asking for fresh connection and installation of the meter again may not arise. But as the said payment of arrears was pursuant to the orders passed in the Consumer Dispute by the Consumer Forum, that too, after a period of four years, the Petitioner has to make an application for fresh connection and it is for the Respondent authorities to consider the said application and provide service connection and install electric meter. 4 With the above observations, the Writ Petition is disposed of. No order as to costs. ------------- 03.12.2009 kvsn