No Electricity Supply Can Be Ordered For Premises Declared Dangerous: Calcutta HC [Read Order]

Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court has dismissed a writ petition seeking a direction to CESC Limited to provide electricity supply to a tenanted premises in Manicktala, holding that no mandamus could be issued for supply to a structure that a Co-ordinate Bench had already found to be dilapidated and dangerous, and whose demolition had been upheld on grounds of public safety.

Justice Om Narayan Rai was hearing a writ petition filed by M/s. S.A. Printers, a tenant of premises No. 121/4K, Manicktala Main Road, Kolkata, alleging arbitrariness on the part of CESC in not effecting an electricity connection applied for in connection with the petitioner's printing press, despite clearances said to have been obtained from the Kolkata Municipal Corporation and the police. The petitioner's counsel submitted that CESC had first cited an obstruction caused by a garbage dump, which the Municipal Corporation later cleared, and thereafter cited an objection from the landlord, which the police were said to have addressed through a no-objection communicated in writing. The petitioner also relied on a pending eviction suit that had ended in dismissal for default and a subsequent title suit in which an order of injunction had been obtained against the landlord.

Counsel for CESC submitted that supply could not be effected because the premises itself had been ordered to be demolished by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, and that a challenge to the demolition order, filed by another tenant of the same building, had already been rejected by a Co-ordinate Bench on 22.09.2025 on the ground that allowing the building to stand would pose serious safety risks. Counsel for the private respondents added that the building was absolutely dilapidated and dangerous, and pointed out that the earlier order had rejected a similar challenge even though that tenant, too, held an injunction against the landlord.

The Court noted that the hand-written notes relied upon by the petitioner did not inspire confidence, but held that even taking them at face value, no direction to supply electricity to a condemned premises could be issued given the gravity of the facts. Referring to the earlier order of the Co-ordinate Bench, which recorded that a portion of the building had already collapsed and the remaining structure was in imminent danger of falling, the Court held that this left no doubt as to the dangerous condition of the premises.

The Court observed that while Section 43 of the Electricity Act, 2003 mandates supply of electricity on the application of an owner or occupier, this obligation remains subject to considerations of safety and security of persons and property at and around the premises. In view of the serious risk to safety and the premises being liable to demolition owing to its dilapidated condition, the Court held that a mandatory direction to CESC to effect supply was wholly unwarranted, and that no case had been made out for a writ of mandamus.

The writ petition was accordingly not entertained and stood dismissed, with no order as to costs, with liberty granted for an urgent certified copy of the judgment to be supplied to the parties on completion of formalities.

Case Title: M/s. S.A. Printers & Another vs. CESC Limited & Others, WPA 21296 of 2026

[Read Order]