A status quo order in a property dispute does not justify disconnecting an occupant’s electricity.

Respondent No. 4 was living in a dwelling house that had been sold to the appellant. A civil suit concerning the sale was pending, and the trial court had ordered the parties to maintain status quo. During the suit, respondent No. 4 obtained an electricity connection. On the appellant’s application, the electricity authorities disconnected it. Respondent No. 4 challenged the disconnection by writ petition, which the Single Bench allowed on 05.05.2026. The appellant appealed, arguing that the trial court’s status quo order prevented the authorities from supplying electricity.

During the appeal, the connection was disconnected again following an interim order of the Division Bench.

Whether the trial court’s status quo order in the civil dispute concerning the sale prevented the electricity authorities from granting or restoring an electricity connection to respondent No. 4.

Whether the authorities could disconnect respondent No. 4’s electricity connection on the basis of that status quo order.

The judgment cites no statute or precedent.

It applies the principle that a status quo order concerning a sale dispute does not, without more, govern a separate matter concerning the grant of an electricity connection. The electricity authorities could not rely on that order as a ground to disconnect the connection where the two disputes were unrelated.

The Court accepted that the parties’ civil dispute and the status quo order concerned the sale, while the electricity connection was a separate issue. Because the order did not relate to the grant or refusal of electricity, it did not prevent the authorities from granting the connection and could not justify its disconnection.

The Court therefore found no merit in the appellant’s challenge to the Single Bench’s order.

All applications were disposed of.