Court Orders 6 Months Imprisonment, Rs 2.20 Lakhs Civil Liability to Consumer for Power Theft

The Special Electricity Court in Rohini, Delhi has convicted and penalized the Tata Power-DDL consumer in Narela, Delhi with 6 months of imprisonment post finding him guilty for the direct theft by tapping the electrical wires under section 135 of The Electricity Act 2003.

Further, a civil liability of Rs 2,20,486 was approved by the court for the electricity theft that the company would recover from the convicted consumer.

This order was passed by Rajesh Malik, Additional Sessions Judge (Electricity), District North West, Rohini, Delhi.

The Court held on a deterrence perspective of discouraging such heinous crimes with stringent punishment as electricity is a basic need and therefore continuous supply needs to be maintained for the consumers at large.

Commenting on the judgement, Ganesh Srinivasan, CEO, Tata Power-DDL said, “we at Tata Power Delhi Distribution have been working incessantly towards providing our consumers with 24x7 power supply even during the pandemic but at the same time have to bear huge losses due to electricity theft. We believe that unscrupulous consumers who indulge in power theft should be dealt with utmost strictness. We laud the judgement of the Special Electricity Court and, urge all our consumers to take legitimate electricity connections and pay their bills on time to avail uninterrupted power supply.”

The company said that it is working on methods to curb the AT&C (Aggregate Technical and Commercial) losses in power theft prone areas and control the menace with strict measures.

It is also keeping a close watch on the violators, and is deploying technology to track power theft and has installed AMR (Automated Meter Reading) based energy systems at distribution transformers for accurate readings.