Case: Petroleum & Natural Gas Regul.Board Vs. Indraprastha Gas Ltd


Decision reasoning: 0[ds]23. The aforesaid analysis of the High Court is in consonance with the provision and the expressionas used in Section 22 for the said provision makes it graphically clear that Section 22 has to yield to Section 11 of the Act which deals with the powers and functions of the Board. Section 11 (e) only uses the words. We have referred to the aforesaid passage as the Constitution Bench has given emphasis on primary purpose of construction of statute to ascertain the intention of the legislature, harmonious construction of the various provisions of the CrPC and for ensuring that the interpretation does not lead to any absurdity. That apart, the Court has also categorically observed that it is not a case where it can be said that legislature has kept a lacuna which the Court is trying to fill up by judicial interpretative process so as to encroach upon the domain of the legislature. In the case at hand, in the schematic context of the Act and upon reading the legislative intention and applying the principle of harmonious construction, we do not perceive inclusion of the entities which are notwould be permissible. They have deliberately not been included under Section 11 of the Act by the legislature and the saiddoes not lead to any absurdity and, therefore, there is no necessity to think of any adventure.Having dealt with this facet, it is appropriate to refer to Section 61, which deals with the power of the Board to make Regulations.(1) of Section 61 stipulates that the Board may, by notification, make regulations consistent with the Act and the Rules made thereunder to carry out the provisions of the Act.(2) of Section 61 stipulates that without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing power, such Regulations may provide for all or any of the following matters and the matters have been enumerated thereafter.In the case at hand, the Board has not been conferred such a power as per Section 11 of the Act. That is the legislative intent. Section 61 enables the Board to frame Regulations to carry out the purposes of the Act and certain specific aspects have been mentioned therein. Section 61 has to be read in the context of the statutory scheme. The regulatory provisions, needless to say, are to be read and applied keeping in view the nature and textual context of the enactment as that is the source of power. On a scanning of the entire Act and applying various principles, we find that the Act does not confer any such power on the Board and the expressioned in Section 22 makes it a conditional one. It has to yield to other provisions of the Act. The power to fix the tariff has not been given to the Board. In view of that the Board cannot frame a Regulation which will cover the area pertaining to determination of network tariff for cityor local gas distributionnetwork and compression charge for CNG. As the entire Regulation centres around the said subject, the said Regulation deserves to be declared ultra vires, and we do so.