File photo of Madras High Court.
The Madras High Court has directed the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) to ensure that electricity bill dues of premises were reflected in encumbrance certificate issued by the Registration Department as and when a purchaser approached the property.
Wherever an electricity bill was due for a premises in question, TNEB should immeidately communicate the same to the Inspector General of Registration who, in turn, shall communicate the encumrance of the property in question to the Sub-Registrar concerned without delay and ensure it was reflected in the encumbrance certificate, Justice R Mahadevan said.
He gave the direction while allowing petitions filed by a school and two dargahs seeking to direct to give fresh electricity connection to their property in the city, which was disconnected for non-payment of dues accumulated over a period of 11 years.
Assistant Engineer of TNEB had rejected the plea for fresh connection saying that unless the dues of Rs 3,12,656, which their erstwhile tenant had to pay were cleared, fresh connection could not be given.
The Judge directed that wherever there was an encumbrance over the properties pertaining to dues to the government like, municipal tax, electricity bill etc, and a charge should be created on such properties and the government should ensure the same was reflected in the encumbrance certificate.
This was necessary to protect the interest of purchasers, including government departments.
The court said it would be neither legal nor proper to insist on the realisation of the arrears due for giving re-connection.
The Judge also said that TNEB was at fault as it did not take steps to collect the dues.