Twenty-one years after the Bombay High Court asked a city-based businessman to deposit with its registry Rs 62,000 disputed by him as electricity charges, a bench has ordered that he may be paid 9 per cent interest on the principal sum from 1993 to 2010 within three months.
The order was delivered recently by A S Gadkari and B R Gavai on a petition filed by 64-year-old Dilip Nevatia staying at Worli Sea Face area of Central Mumbai.
The high court has ordered the prothonotary to pay the interest to Nevatia for 17 years at the rate of nine per cent per annum.
In 1991, he had filed a suit in the high court disputing electricity bill of Rs 62,000 charged by Bombay Suburban Electric Supply Ltd. The court had asked him to deposit the disputed amount with the registrar of the court till the matter was decided. The petitioner complied with the order.
He got back the principal amount in 2013 along with interest from 2010 to 2013. However, he did not get interest for the period 1993 to 2010. Being aggrieved, he moved the high court which asked the authorities to pay interest for the period of 17 years within three months.
The court also made it clear that the businessman was at liberty to recover the said amount of interest from the officers concerned who have not followed the directions issued by the high court earlier, by adopting appropriate procedure as may be permissible under the law.
