Advocates are not ‘Commercial Consumers’ for electricity bills

Aurangabad bench : Advocating is a noble profession, not a trade or commercial activity,

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: In a significant ruling, the Aurangabad Bench of the Bombay High Court has declared that advocates cannot be classified as ‘commercial consumers’ for electricity bill purposes. This decision comes after a petition argued that advocating is a noble profession, not a trade or commercial activity, and therefore shouldn't be subject to higher commercial electricity tariffs.

The petition, filed by adv Devanand Y Nandedkar through adv Pooja Shivhari Munde, challenged the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission's (MERC) categorization of lawyers as commercial consumers. It argued that MERC, empowered to create consumer categories and fix tariffs, had wrongly placed advocates in this category alongside businesses and industries.

Citing the Advocates Act, 1961, the Bench, led by Justice Ravindra Ghuge and Justice YG Khobragade, acknowledged the legal restrictions on commercialization of advocacy. They upheld the petitioner's argument, stating that electricity consumption for legal services cannot be equated with commercial activity.