IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA Civil Writ Jurisdiction Case No.4038 of 2010 Kumar Mritunjaya,son of Shri Binay Kumar Sharma, resident of village-Runnisaidpur, P.S.Runnisaidpur, District-Sitamarhi, presently residing at mohalla-Naya Tola, Kalambagh Road,P.S. Kazi Mohammadpur, District- Muzaffarpur. Versus 1. The Bihar State Electricity Board, through the General Manager-cum-Chief Engineer, Tirhun Area Electricity Board, Bhagwanpur, Muzaffarpur. 2. The Executive Engineer, Electric Supply Division, Maripur, Muzaffarpur. 3. Assistant Electrical Engineer, Electric Supply Sub-division, Maripur, Muzaffarpur. 4. Junior Electrical engineer, Electric Supply Sub-Division, Maripur, Muzaffarpur. --------------------- 6 12.09.2011 Heard Mr. Kishore Kumar Thakur, learned counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioner and Mr. Prakash Kumar, learned counsel for the Bihar State Electricity Board and its functionaries. This writ petition has been filed, seeking a direction to the respondent authority of the Bihar State Electricity Board, Bihar, Patna (hereinafter referred to as the ‘Board’) to refund the amount of Rs. 85, 994.00 illegally realized from the petitioner being the estimated loss suffered by the respondent-Board by reason of alleged theft of electricity committed in the typing institute of which the petitioner is said to be an associate and the compounding amount. The facts of the matter giving rise to the present writ petition is that a raid was conducted in the typing institute in question and when it was detected that the 2 occupants were drawing electricity by unauthorized means, an FIR was instituted under section 135 of the Act and the petitioner, who was present, was arrested. It is not in dispute that the Typing Institute in question is located in the premises of one R. K. Shrivastava, who was provided with an electricity connection bearing no. C 2305/M19510. The said premise was let out to one Ashok Kumar for running the typing institute in question. It is the case of the Board that this petitioner was authorized by the said Ashok Kumar to manage the typing institute. The electricity connection of the Typing institute was earlier disconnected by reason of default in payment of electricity bill. On 12.1.2010 when a raid was made at the premises in question it was found that the typing institute was drawing electricity by unauthorized means. As the petitioner was found at the place during the course of raid, hence, he was taken into custody. An F.I.R. was instituted under the provisions of Section 135 of the Electricity Act, 2003 giving rise to Kazi Mohammadpur P.S. Case No. 7 of 2010, wherein it was inter alia alleged that the Electricity Board by reason of drawal of electricity by unauthorized means had suffered a loss of Rs. 55,000/- and apart from the said punitive charge, a compounding amount was also assessed at Rs. 30.994, the total amount being Rs. 85,954. The petitioner prayed for bail before the Chief Judicial Magistrate and at the stage of its consideration also deposited the 3 amount in question i.e. Rs. 55, 000/- which was assessed as loss by the respondent Board and Rs. 30, 954 being the compounding amount. The petitioner having deposited the said amount at the stage of consideration of his case for bail, has now approached this Court by way of present writ petition for refund of the said amount inter alia on grounds that he was wrongfully implicated in the case and that he is neither the owner of the premises nor did he own the typing institute which according to the respondent-Board themselves, was owned by Ashok Kumar. It is thus contended that not only he has been wrongfully implicated but has also been forced to part with the amount in question. Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that in view of the aforesaid clear position, the petitioner was not required to pay the alleged estimated loss amount or the compounding amount especially in view of the submission made in the counter affidavit filed on behalf of the Board admitting that the premises was owned by Sri R.K. Srivastava and the Typing Institute was owned by Ashok Kumar. Be that as it may, this court finds that the deposit of the amount in question was made by the petitioner at the stage of the consideration of his bail by the learned court below. The matter after registration of the F.I.R. under Section 135 of the Electricity Act, 2003 is now pending for consideration before the Special Court 4 constituted under Section 153 and is subject matter of the special court proceedings. In that view of the matter, any deposit made by the petitioner in the light of the F.I.R. would be governed by the final out come of the case. The writ petition is disposed of with the aforesaid observation. Ravi/- (Jyoti Saran, J.)