A Gurugram electrician will now face criminal proceedings in 31 FIRs of meter-tampering as Punjab and Haryana high court (HC) has dismissed his plea of quashing these FIRs.
The bench of justice Deepak Gupta held that under Section 152 of The Electricity Act, 2003, the composition is permissible only with a consumer or any person, who committed or is reasonably suspected of having committed an offence of electricity theft as per Section 135 of The Electricity Act. “The offence of interference with meters or works of licence as provided under Section 138 of The Electricity Act is a separate and distinct offence, which is not compoundable, because it is only the offence of electricity theft, which has been made compoundable by the Legislature,” the bench recorded while dismissing his plea.
