Insolvency resolution limits electricity arrears recovery: unclaimed dues may not survive, and supply rules do not create a property charge.

Pending insolvency resolution, unpaid electricity dues that were not lodged in the resolution process and not incorporated into the approved plan were treated, prima facie, as not enforceable against the corporate debtor outside that plan. The Court also read the amended supply regulation as a recovery mechanism against successors, legal representatives, or new occupiers, not as creating a proprietary charge over the premises. On a prima facie basis, the distribution licensee was therefore not entitled to withhold processing of new or reconnection applications solely because of past arrears, though it could continue recording the dues in its books and bills.

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Issues: (i) whether the electricity distribution licensee could insist on payment of past arrears before processing the petitioner's application for a new connection, (ii) whether the petitioner's past electricity dues stood extinguished on approval of the resolution plan under the insolvency process, and (iii) whether the amended electricity supply regulation created an enforceable charge over the premises for the distribution licensee's dues.

Issue (i): whether the electricity distribution licensee could insist on payment of past arrears before processing the petitioner's application for a new connection.

Analysis: The dispute at this stage was confined to interim relief and required balancing competing equities. The Court noted that the petitioner's new and reconnection applications were being rejected solely on the footing of earlier arrears, while current charges could still be billed and recovered in the ordinary course. On the prima facie view taken, the past demand could not be used to block processing of the new connection applications pending final adjudication.

Conclusion: In favour of the petitioner. The distribution licensee was directed to process the connection applications without insisting on payment of the past arrears.

Issue (ii): whether the petitioner's past electricity dues stood extinguished on approval of the resolution plan under the insolvency process.

Analysis: The Court applied the settled principle that once a resolution plan is approved under the insolvency framework, claims not forming part of the plan do not survive and the successful resolution applicant is entitled to start on a clean slate. It distinguished the facts from the later statutory-charge case relied on by the respondent, emphasizing that the respondent had failed to lodge its claim within the prescribed time and had attempted to stand outside the resolution process. The Court held that the past dues, prima facie, fell within the category of claims extinguished by the approved resolution plan.

Conclusion: In favour of the petitioner. The past dues were treated, prima facie, as not enforceable outside the approved resolution plan.

Issue (iii): whether the amended electricity supply regulation created an enforceable charge over the premises for the distribution licensee's dues.

Analysis: The Court read the regulation as making unpaid electricity dues recoverable from the successor, legal representative, or new occupier, but not as creating a proprietary charge over the premises itself. The provision was treated as a recovery mechanism against the person using or occupying the premises, not as security enforceable in specie against the property. On that construction, the regulation did not permit the respondent to override the effect of the approved resolution plan.

Conclusion: In favour of the petitioner. No enforceable statutory charge over the premises was found on a prima facie basis.

Final Conclusion: The respondent was restrained, at the interim stage, from insisting on prior arrears as a condition for processing the petitioner's connection applications, while leaving the merits of the rival claims open for final hearing. The respondent was nevertheless allowed to continue reflecting arrears in its records and bills for bookkeeping and future legal protection.

Ratio Decidendi: Claims not lodged within the insolvency resolution process and not incorporated in the approved resolution plan do not survive against the corporate debtor, and a dues-recovery provision aimed at successor occupiers does not by itself create a security interest over the premises.

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