Corporate separateness limits recovery of electricity dues to company assets, absent express basis for directors' personal liability.

A company that contracts as the electricity consumer remains the separate legal debtor for those dues, and its directors do not become personally liable merely because they executed the agreement in a representative capacity. In the absence of an express statutory provision or clear contractual term extending liability to directors, the company's assets alone are available for recovery. The definitions of "consumer" in the electricity framework, and references to executors, administrators, legal representatives and successors, did not justify treating directors as the consumer or invoking corporate veil principles. Recovery from directors' personal assets was therefore impermissible.

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Issues: Whether electricity dues of a company-consumer can be recovered from the personal assets of its directors, and whether the expression "consumer" in the relevant agreement and statutory provisions extends to directors so as to make them personally liable.

Analysis: The Company was the contracting consumer and had entered into the electricity agreements through its director in that representative capacity. A company is a separate legal entity, and in the absence of an express statutory provision or contractual term creating personal liability, a director's assets cannot be treated as assets of the company. The definitions of "consumer" in the relevant electricity enactment and regulations, and the reference to executors, administrators, legal representatives and successors in the agreement, did not permit the directors to be equated with the company. The circumstances relied upon for lifting the corporate veil were not sufficient to displace the statutory and contractual scheme making the company alone liable for the dues.

Conclusion: The directors were not personally liable for the company's electricity dues, and recovery from their personal assets was impermissible.

Ratio Decidendi: In the absence of an express statutory provision or clear contractual basis, electricity dues of a company-consumer are recoverable only from the company's assets and not from the personal assets of its directors, even if they signed the agreement on behalf of the company.

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