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Tata Power Delhi Distribution Ltd. v. Manoj Misra & Ors.

Civil Appeal · 2019 INSC 1192Decided 24 Oct 2019
Civil Appeal Nos. 9276-9290 of 2015
Justice L. Nageswara Rao · Justice Hemant Gupta

Background

The National Green Tribunal, while deciding applications about pollution and encroachment affecting the Yamuna river and Delhi's drains, directed in 2015 that "environmental compensation" be collected from every household in Delhi for generating sewage, to be added to their electricity, water, or property tax bills. Tata Power, an electricity distribution company, appealed against being made to collect this compensation through electricity bills, and the Supreme Court had earlier stayed that direction. The Tribunal subsequently passed a fresh order in September 2019 requiring Delhi's government and municipal bodies to introduce dedicated sewerage charges instead.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that, in light of the Tribunal's later (11.09.2019) direction requiring the introduction of a proper sewerage-charge regime by the Delhi government and municipal authorities, the earlier 2015 direction asking electricity distributors to collect environmental compensation through power bills stood modified and no longer needed to be implemented. The Court directed that the 2019 sewerage-charge direction be implemented within two months, and disposed of the appeals on that basis, without commenting on the correctness of the original 2015 direction.

Lesson Learnt

Regulatory burdens imposed on one category of entity (here, electricity distributors collecting an unrelated environmental levy) can be revisited and substituted when a more appropriate dedicated mechanism is later put in place by the competent authority.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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