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Relying on the judgment of this Court in Bharat Barrel, learned Single Judge held that the restriction as to six months period provided in Section 26 has no application to a demand made by the licensee or the Electricity Board for the unpaid amount for the electricity consumed if the consumer was under- billed due to clerical mistakes or human error or such like mistakes.

Para-14:- The principle which can be deduced from the above judgments is that in case the consumer is suresh FB-901-903-10764.2011.doc under-billed on account of clerical mistake such as the present case, where the multiplication factor had changed from 500 to 1000, but due to oversight, the department issued bills with 500 as multiplication factor instead of 1000, the bar of limitation cannot be raised by the consumer. Though Section 26(6) of the Indian Electrical Act, 1910 is not in pari materia with Section 56(2) of the Electricity Act, 2003, in our opinion, the present case would be governed by the above principle and, hence, the challenge raised by the petitioners must fail.

suresh FB-901-903-10764.2011.doc Admittedly, the monthly bill issued to respondent No.1 prior bill was issued on the basis of multiplying factor as one, whereas in fact multiplying factor should be and has to be two. Therefore, the bill earlier issued was only for the 50% of the consumption of the electricity. Admittedly there was no bill raised for the balance 50% of the electricity consumed by respondent No.1. The error was purely an human error.

The petitioners state that respondent No.1 applied for the electricity supply and agreement was also signed by respondent No.1 with the petitioner/Undertaking wherein it was mentioned that it is also the responsibility of the consumer to ask for the bill from the petitioner/Undertaking for the consumption of electricity.

The petitioners state that Section 56(2) of The Electricity Act has no application to the demand made by the licensee or the Electricity Board for the unpaid amount for the electricity consumed if the consumer was under billed due to clerical mistake or human error or such like mistake as has been held by this Hon'ble Court in the matter being Judgment dated 20-8-2009 in Writ Petition No.7015 of 2008 between M/s. Rototex Polyester & Anr. v/s Administrator, Administration of Dadra and Nagar Haveli (U.T) Electricity Development, Silvassa & Ors., passed by the Hon'ble Division Bench suresh FB-901-903-10764.2011.doc presided over by Her Ladyship Smt. Justice Ranjana Desai (as Her Ladyship then was) and His Lordship Mr. Justice A.A. Sayed. The petitioners state that in the said Judgment dated 20-8-2009, the Division Bench of this Hon'ble Court, while discussing at length Section 56(2) of The Electricity Act, 2003 was pleased to hold that the bar of limitation cannot be raised by the consumer in cases where the Department erroneously short billed the consumer and further held that the "due" date as spelt out under Section 56(2) shall be from the date of the revised bill and not from the date of the consumption of electricity and the period of two years shall be applicable from the date of the revised bill."

13. In U.A. Thadani's case (supra), learned Single Judge of this court was concerned with similar fact situation. Two bills were raised on the consumer demanding additional amounts because multiplying factor was wrongly charged. It was argued by the consumer on the basis of sub-section (6) of Section 26 that the Electrical Inspector could determine the quantum of electricity consumed during the statutory period of six months and for the period anterior to it the reading registered in the disputed meter will have to be presumed to be correct. Relying on the judgment of this court in Bharat Barrel, learned Single Judge held that the restriction as to six months' period provided in Section 26 has no application suresh FB-901-903-10764.2011.doc to a demand made by the licensee or the Electricity Board for the unpaid amount for the electricity consumed if the consumer was under-billed due to clerical mistakes or human error or such like mistakes.