1 pdp IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY Appellate Side Civil Writ Petition No. 434 of 2005 With Civil Application No. 1781 of 2007 M/s. Spentex Industries Ltd. .. Petitioner Vs. 1. Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Co. Ltd. and ors. .. Respondents Ms. Seema Sarnaik for petitioner. Ms. Christine Rewne i/by M/s. Little and Co. for respondent no.1. Mr. V.A. Sonpal with Mr. S.D. Rayrikar, AGP for respondent no.3. CORAM: B.H.MARLAPALLE & SMT.ROSHAN DALVI,JJ. December 05, 2009. P.C. 1. Challenge in this petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution and the relief prayed for is akin to the group of petitions decided by us, firstly by our common judgment dated 5/10/2009 and subsequently by our common judgment dated 7/11/2009. The petitioner-company claims that it is entitled for full exemption in the payment of electricity duty for the period from 1/4/2000 to 30/4/2005 on the power generated by its Captive Power Plant. 2 2. The petitioner-company claims that it invested approximately Rs.3,75,00,000/- for each unit of power generation and two such units came to be installed by obtaining necessary permission from the State Electricity Board, as then it was, as per its letter dated 1/7/1995. It has been pointed out that two sets of Diesel generation with a capacity of 2500 KW each have been installed and till 31/3/2000 the State Government had granted full exemption in payment of electricity duty on the Captive Power Plant generated electricity. We have verified from the permission letter dated 1/7/1995 issued by the State Electricity Board and para 1 and 2 of the said letter read as under:- “1. You shall use the captive generation from these sets independently to meet the load requirement of 4000 KW of your expansion unit at the same address without any interconnection with MSEB’s existing supply. That is all the machineries of the expansion will run independently on proposed DG sets. 3 2. You shall get the plans approved from the Electrical Inspector, before commissioning of the sets and complete the necessary formalities such as Electrical Inspector’s clearance, submission of test report etc. before connecting the load of expansion project to the Captive Generations.” 3. From the above stated conditions put in by the Electricity Board it is clear that the Diesel generating sets installed by the petitioner-company came to be recognized as Captive Power Plants with the capacity of 4000 KW so as to meet its total requirement, including the expansion. In our common judgment dated 7/11/2009, we had considered a similar case in Writ Petition No. 897 of 2008 and held that the generating sets so installed would fall within the ambit of Captive Power Plant. Hence, the petitioner is entitled for the same relief, as was granted by us in the above cited two common judgments. 4. In the premises, this petition succeeds and for the reasons stated in our above cited common judgments, we quash and set aside the notification dated 4/4/2001 and hold that the petitioner-company is entitled for full exemption in the 4 payment of electricity duty for the period from 1/4/2000 to 30/4/2005. Consequently, the impugned demand notices are hereby quashed and set aside. 5. Rule is made absolute accordingly with no order as to costs. 6. Civil Application No. 1781 of 2007 does not survive and shall stand disposed as such. (SMT. ROSHAN DALVI,J.) (B.H.MARLAPALLE,J.)