Limitation — Pronouncement of order — Maximum period prescribed is 120 days from ‘date of communication of order’ of Tribunal — Electricity Act, 2003, S. 125.

[Chhattisgarh State
Electricity Board v. Central Electricity Regulatory Commission & Ors., AIR
2010 SC 2061]

S. 110 of the Electricity
Act provides for establishment of a Tribunal to hear appeals. S. 111(1) and (2)
lays down that any person aggrieved by an order made by an adjudicating officer
or an appropriate commission under this Act may prefer an appeal to the Tribunal
within a period of 45 days from the date on which a copy of the order made by an
adjudicating officer or the appropriate commission is received by him. S. 111(5)
mandates that the Tribunal shall deal with the appeal as expeditiously as
possible and endeavour to dispose of the same finally within 180 days from the
date of receipt thereof. S. 125 lays down that any person aggrieved by any
decision or order of the Tribunal can file an appeal to the Supreme Court within
60 days from the date of communication of the decision or order of the Tribunal.

The question which arose for
consideration was what is the date of communication of the decision or order of
the Tribunal for the purpose of S. 125 of the Electricity Act. The word
‘communication’ has not been defined in the Act and the Rules. Therefore, the
same deserves to be interpreted by applying the rule of contextual
interpretation and keeping in view the language of the relevant provisions. Rule
94(1) of the Rules lays down that the Bench of the Tribunal which hears an
application or petition shall pronounce the order immediately after conclusion
of the hearing. Rule 94(2) deals with a situation where the order is reserved.
In that event, the date for pronouncement of order is required to be notified in
the cause list and the same is treated as a notice of intimation of
pronouncement. Rule 98(1) casts a duty upon the Court Master to immediately
after pronouncement transmit the order along with the case file to the Deputy
Registrar. In terms of Rule 98(2), the Deputy Registrar is required to
scrutinise the file, satisfy himself that provisions of rules have been complied
with and thereafter, send the case file to the Registry for taking steps to
prepare copies of the order and their communication to the parties. If Rule
98(2) is read in isolation, one may get an impression that the registry of the
Tribunal is duty bound to send copies of the order to the parties and the order
will be deemed to have been communicated on the date of receipt thereof, but if
the same is read in conjunction with S. 125 of the Electricity Act, which
enables any aggrieved party to file an appeal within 60 days from the date of
communication of the decision or order of the Tribunal, Rule 94(2) which
postulates notification of the date of pronouncement of the order in the cause
list and Rule 106 under which the Tribunal can allow filing of an appeal or
petition or application through electronic media and provide for rectification
of the defects by e-mail or net, it becomes clear that once the factum of
pronouncement of order by the Tribunal is made known to the parties and they are
given opportunity to obtain a copy thereof through e-mail, etc., the order will
be deemed to have been communicated to the parties and the period of 60 days
specified in the main part of S. 125 will commence from that date.

The issue was also
considered from another angle. As mentioned above, Rule 94(2) requires that when
the order is reserved, the date of pronouncement shall be notified in the cause
list and that shall be a valid notice of pronouncement of the order. The counsel
appearing for the parties are supposed to take cognizance of the cause list in
which the case is shown for pronouncement. If title of the case and name of the
counsel is printed in the cause list, the same will be deemed as a notice
regarding pronouncement of the order. Once the order is pronounced after being
shown in the cause list with the title of the case and name of the counsel, the
same will be deemed to have been communicated to the parties and they can obtain
copy through e-mail or by filing an application for certified copy.