Judgment 1. HEARD the learned counsel for the parties. 2. LEARNED counsel for the petitioner brought to our notice that this Court passed order on 17-5-2010 which required something to be done by the respondent Board. On 27-8-2010, Advocate General sought for time to comply with the order passed by this Court and three weeks' time was granted. LEARNED Advocate General informs that they have filed the reply. On being questioned whether the entire direction has been complied with, he is not in a position to say that the entire direction passed on 17-10-2010 has been complied with. The scheme which was to come up, has not come up yet. The same may be finalized before the next date of hearing In the meantime, IA No. 2894 of 2010 was filed by the respondent Board on 2-8-2010 praying for the modification of the part of the orders dated 19-1-2010, 28-1-2010 and 17-5-2010. Prayer made in the aforesaid IA in para 9 reads as under : "That it would be relevant to state here that since thereafter generation of electricity within the control of State of Jharkhand has improved a lot and some excess electricity remains with the Board after meeting its demand. However, there is some system constraints and non-connectivity in absence of transmission network and the JSEB has not been able to fulfill utilise all the electricity available at its command." 3. IT was urged on behalf of the Amicus curiae that this application is a clear violation of the intent, purports and contents of the order No. 98. 176 and 181 passed by this Court on 1-5-2008, 27-11-2009 and 13-1- 2010. The respondent Board is not only not adhering to the directions issued by this Court notwithstanding the fact that all the directions, except one, have been approved by the Supreme Court and it is contended on behalf of the respondent that it is not in a position to utilise the electricity supply which is being made at its disposal. Such pretext cannot be countenanced and therefore the Board is clearly in contempt of the order of the Court. 4. PER contra, Mr. V. P. Singh, learned counsel for the Board submitted as follows : When this State was separated, it had got very dilapidated condition. The Electricity Board came into function since 1st of May, 2001 and thereafter there were certain difficulties. 4. PER contra, Mr. V. P. Singh, learned counsel for the Board submitted as follows : When this State was separated, it had got very dilapidated condition. The Electricity Board came into function since 1st of May, 2001 and thereafter there were certain difficulties. There were no regular Heads so far as Electricity Board is concerned. The Electricity Board is manned by the Senior I.A.S. Officers for the last three months. So far as the topography of the State of Jharkhand is concerned, so many lines passes through forest area and thundering prone area. The power supply sometimes is interrupted by the thundering and supply has to be closed and if it is connected with the generating station, the generating station will be damaged and that will be a very difficult situation. These were the backgrounds. So far as electricity is concerned, three major parts are there. First is Generation, Second is Transmission of the electricity and Third is Supply. 5. SO far as generation is concerned, the Jharkhand State Electricity Board has got its own unit at P.T.P.S. and another State Government Unit is T.V.N.L. There is a hydel project also in the State of Jharkhand at Sikidari which mostly runs in the raining season when the dam is full of water. But the generation from these places is not enough for the Board to meet the demand. Therefore the Board has requested the D.V.C. as well as Central Government to supply electricity from their units. The moment the Central Government is approached, it has got so many companies like NTPC and there is one Hydel Power Corporation also. Central Government makes allocation from those areas, generating stations, same percentage of electricity for the purpose of example, NTPC has got its generating station in the State of Bihar at Kahalgaon. If the capacity of generation in that thermal power station is 1000 MW then the Central Government, before starting the project, decides the percentage of electricity that particular State is going to utilize. If the certain allocation is made by the Central Government we cannot get it reduced to give it to other State. The coal is of Jharkhand and most of the thermal power stations are functioning from the coal of the Jharkhand. If the certain allocation is made by the Central Government we cannot get it reduced to give it to other State. The coal is of Jharkhand and most of the thermal power stations are functioning from the coal of the Jharkhand. Therefore so far as the other thermal power stations are concerned, they are using the land of Jharkhand, water of Jharkhand and they are polluting the environment of Jharkhand. Therefore we have certain priority for getting electricity from them. 6. D.V.C. has been constituted under 1948 Act of the Parliament and they have got certain control over the supply or that has been defined in that Act. In other areas, to other consumers J.S.E.B. which was earlier B.S.E.B., they were entitled to make supply. So far as the D.V.C. is concerned they were permitted to supply to the consumers who require power above 30,000 volts. In those areas also we take electricity from them. There are 14-15 lakhs total consumers within the State of Jharkhand to whom the Electricity Board makes supply. Out of 14-15 lakhs consumers, approximately 10 lakhs consumers are domestic consumers and for supplying the electricity, J.S.E.B. purchases the electricity from NTPC. Their rate varies from Rs. 2.71 to Rs. 3.81. So far as domestic consumers are concerned, earlier J.S.E.B. used to charge Rs. 1.60 per unit from the domestic consumers which has been enhanced to Rs. 1.70 per unit. So far as industrial consumers are concerned, their rates are different. So far as National Hydel Power Corporation is concerned, their rates also varies from Rs. 1.80 to Rs. 1.90 or approximately Rs. 21- per unit. None of these companies will make supply at this rate on which rate J.S.E.B. supplies power to its consumers. Apart from the town consumers, in the villages, as per policy of the Central Government, there are B.P.L. consumers to whom in very nominal rate electricity is being supplied therefor we are not a profit making agency. 7. ANOTHER licencees in the State of Jharkhand is at Jamshedpur i.e. JUSCO who charges Rs. 40,000/- for giving electricity connection. Here it is very nominal rate on which the supply is being made. 8. 7. ANOTHER licencees in the State of Jharkhand is at Jamshedpur i.e. JUSCO who charges Rs. 40,000/- for giving electricity connection. Here it is very nominal rate on which the supply is being made. 8. FOR some reasons the electricity which is coming from the generating station to the national pool from where the electricity is drawn, if Central Government allots 1000 MW to us, let us presume that we cannot use more than 100 MW and even if we do not use the single unit, we will have to make certain proportionate payment to those electricity companies with whom we have the agreement. If we are unable to use 100 MW which we cannot require after peak-hour, we do not have another agreement with anybody for non-peak hours. Electricity as not a thing which can be preserved. Because we cannot consistently use 500 MW, so if there is less drawn we do not sell it. There is no such agreement. We have not entered into any agreement. It remains in the system. Nobody will like to sell Electricity @ 15 paise per unit which they have purchased @ Rs. 2.70 per unit. If nobody uses nothing happens. If somebody uses then there is an Eastern Region Load Despatch Centre which gives details in every 15 minutes since the Board has been given 100 MW at 12 Midnight. That depends upon the availability of minutes to minutes. Every hour it varies. All wrong pictures have been given to this Court. It is not a thing that we have sold it. Though it was allotted to us, we have not been able to use. That is another aspect. So far as generation is concerned, certain allocation we cannot use all the 24 hours in a day, that is why, sometimes utilization of energy so allotted to us is not fully utilized for three reasons. (i) Connectivity (ii) Peak hour and non-peak hour utilization cannot be constant. (iii) System constrained. 9. SO far as connectivity in all the town area is concerned, there is a connectivity and nobody can dispute that in a particular town there is no connectivity. There are certain villages where there are no connectivity. SO, for the purpose of electrification of the villages, the Central Government has framed a scheme i.e. Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Vidyutikaran Yojha for executing connectivity. In the State of Jharkhand there are 24 districts. There are certain villages where there are no connectivity. SO, for the purpose of electrification of the villages, the Central Government has framed a scheme i.e. Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Vidyutikaran Yojha for executing connectivity. In the State of Jharkhand there are 24 districts. The Central Government has allotted the work of electrification of nine districts to the D.V.C. for the work of electrification SO far as the State of Jharkhand is concerned, they allotted six districts and in the six districts, we have been able to complete 91% of electrification work. We are in a process. The area which has been allotted to us, we will be able to achieve it shorty (exact period I cannot give). SO far as the other areas are concerned, the NTPC and DVC are liable, for whatever reasons, all the villages have not been electrically connected and that is why so called surplus unutilized electricity remains in the national grid and if all villages are electrified, certainly there utilization will be made. SO far as connectivity part is concerned, there is certain difficulty with the Board in two areas. They are Palamau Commissionary and Deoghar. There is no direct connectivity from the generating station of the Electricity Board in Deoghar. We are getting electricity through Bengal. SO far as making direct connectivity from the generating station is concerned, we have done 80% work. In Palamau also we have achieved 80% progress in directly connecting with our generating stations. In Palamau we get electricity from U.P. (Rihand) from there it comes to Bihar and from Bihar it goes to Garhwa. We are awaiting for clearance from two departments. One is forest department because it has to be passed through forest and second is from Railways. If the clearance is given to us, within 15 days to a month, we will be able to directly supply electricity to this region and there will be no surplus electricity so far as the Board is concerned. 10. SO far as system constrained is concerned, the instruments like transformers or the conductors, they have the capacity to carry on the electricity. From a thin wire if the heavy volt of energy is transmitted at a higher voltage, then the loss of electricity becomes very less. There are some old conductors. 10. SO far as system constrained is concerned, the instruments like transformers or the conductors, they have the capacity to carry on the electricity. From a thin wire if the heavy volt of energy is transmitted at a higher voltage, then the loss of electricity becomes very less. There are some old conductors. Nearly 2500 kms of conductors in the existing or we have been able to change by now to carry the heavy loads. These things have to be improved. I have informed to your Lordship that we are purchasing electricity on a higher rate. We are not making any profit at all. The tariff which was given at such a low rate to the Board and in fact the backbone of the Board was broken due to the tariff fixed in the year 2001 and we are not in a financial surplus. We are in a loss and every time we are looking to the State Government because we are not making any profit rather we are making supply in the blocks. For upgradation of the system some funds are required. We are doing very slow so if the system is upgraded, that problem will also go up. So far as interruption in supply is concerned, supply is mainly interrupted in a particular area for four reasons. (i) Non-availability of power (ii) Theft of electricity. (iii) Break down (iv) Maintenance work. 11. SO far as generation is concerned, sometimes in our generating stations, there happens to be break down. If the generation is less at a particular time for any reason, then there may be a non-supply of power but at present I am informing that both the units of TVNL and PTPS are functional and generating electricity 400 MW and 70-80 MW respectively. Sikidary is not very effectively working due to less rain this year. 12. HAVING considered the submissions made on behalf of all the parties. This Court is of the opinion that the arguments advanced on behalf of the Board fall short of the expectations which were conceived while constituting the Board. In short, the submission of the Board is that they need further time to execute the Scheme. The tariff rates fixed have broken their bone and they are running in loss and the Board is looking towards the State for its assistance for their existence. In short, the submission of the Board is that they need further time to execute the Scheme. The tariff rates fixed have broken their bone and they are running in loss and the Board is looking towards the State for its assistance for their existence. The submission on behalf of the Board is that the Board is not in a healthy financial condition. If such is the position, then perhaps the Electricity Regulatory Commission can be called upon to exercise its power under Section 24 of the Act. However, before any such observation for any positive action is made by this Court, in our view, it would be expedient to grant time to the Board for making an introspection and devise a methodology, because they are not only required to supply electricity to those to whom the State considers necessary, but also to the people who are below the poverty line and of lower strata of the society in terms of the Electricity Act and in that view of the matter, they are commercial organisation also. They have to compete also with the persons who are in the market. 13. WE hope that keeping the aforesaid in view, the Board will come out with a properly devised methodology in order to fulfil all its obligations as also for its sustenance in the market, otherwise it would be necessary for the Regulatory Commission to take steps in the manner in which it has been observed hereinabove. 14. POST this case on 28-10-2010. Let copies of this order be handed over to the counsel for the parties. Order accordingly.