State Act

The Himachal Pradesh Town and Country Planning Act, 1977

78z. Promoter’s responsibility for essential services.-(1) No promoter and no person who is responsible for the management and maintenance of a building or apartments, shall without just and sufficient cause, either by himself or through any person, cut off, withhold, curtail or reduce, any essential supply or service enjoyed in respect of such apartment or plot by the person who has taken or agreed to take an apartment or plot or by any person in occupation thereof through or under him. (2) If there is a contravention of the provisions of sub-section (1), the person who has taken or agreed to take the apartment or plot or the occupier thereof may make an application to the Director for a direction to restore such supply or service. (3) If the Director on enquiry finds that the person referred to in sub-section (2) has been in enjoyment of the essential supply or service and that it was cut off or withheld or curtailed or reduced without just and sufficient cause, the Director shall make an order directing the restoration of such supply or service before a date to be specified in the order. (4) If the supply or service is not restored before the date specified under sub-section (3), the promoter or the person responsible for the management and maintenance of the building or apartment or plot shall be liable, upon a further direction by the Director to that effect, to a penalty which may extend to one thousand rupees for each day during which the default continues thereafter. (5) Notwithstanding anything contained in any law for the time being in force, the Director shall have jurisdiction to decide any application made under sub-section (2) and no other court shall have jurisdiction to entertain such application and no appeal shall lie from any order made on such application. (6) Any promoter or person responsible for the management and maintenance of building or apartment or plot, who contravenes the provisions of sub-section (1), shall on conviction be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three months or with fine, which may extend to fifty thousand rupees or with both. (7) The offence under sub-section (6) shall be cognizable, and shall not be triable by any court inferior to that of Judicial Magistrate of the First Class. Explanation-I.-In this section, “essential supply or service” includes the supply of water, electricity, lights in passages and on staircase, and lifts and conservancy or sanitary service. Explanation-II.-For the purposes of this section withholding any essential supply or service shall include acts or omissions attributable to the promoter or the person responsible for the management and maintenance of the building or apartment, on account of which the essential supply of service is cut off by the local authority or any other authority.