A person purchasing a property cannot demand a fresh electricity connection without settling the dues left behind by the erstwhile owner, the Madras High Court has observed.
“A property buyer steps into the shoes of the erstwhile owner. He has to pay the outstanding dues as condition precedent for seeking restoration of electricity supply or fresh connection for the same property,” Justice D Hariparanthaman said.
To ensure that the verdict is enforced uniformly without any ambiguity, he also directed the TN Electricity Board chairman to issue circulars to all his subordinate engineers.
“The TNEB chairman is directed to circulate this judgment to all superintending engineers concerned to insist upon payment of dues of erstwhile consumers in the premises for which electricity supply has been disconnected for default in payment of dues, by the subsequent purchasers,” the judge said.
Earlier, invoking the ‘buyers beware’ principle, TNEB counsel SMS Johny Basha and S Srimathy told the bench that law contemplates that the buyer should be careful before purchasing a property.
Pudukottai-based Omni Fusion Technologies purchased 6.72 acre property in 2007 from two companies which were high-tension (HT) service connection consumers. When Omni Fusion applied for new electricity connection, the TNEB rejected the plea pointing out that the two erstwhile owners had not settled outstanding dues amounting to over Rs 82 lakh. Hence, the present writ petition was filed.
The company said the original Electricity Act which contained the terms and conditions had now been repealed and hence the clause could not be invoked against it now. It was a new entity having nothing to do with the earlier defaulters and it was not aware of the outstanding dues at the time of buying the property.
Rejecting the submissions, Justice Hariparanthaman held that the terms and conditions were covered by the new Act and hence the Board was legally justified in making demand for settling the dues.