Public Utility - Indian Laws - General

Public Utility American Jurisprudence (2nd Edition, Vol. 64) on the subject of public utilities. Some of these passages may be usefully quoted. At page 549, it discusses the definition and nature of a public utility. The passage runs thus: 1. Definition and nature A public utility is a business or service which is engaged in regularly supplying the public with some commodity or service of public consequence, such as electricity, gas, water, transportation, or telephone or telegraph service. Publicly owned utilities are those owned by public corporations such as municipal public utility districts and public utility districts. Apart from statutes which define the public utilities which are within the purview of such statutes, it would be difficult to construct a definition of a public utility which would fit every conceivable case, but there are certain considerations that are of aid in determining whether a specific organization or business is a public utility. As its name indicates, the term public utility implies a public use and service to the public, and indeed, the principal determinative characteristic of a public utility is that of service to, or readiness to serve, an indefinite public (or portion of the public as such) which has a legal right to demand and receive its services or commodities. There must be a dedication or holding out, either express or implied, of produce or services to the public as a class. The term precludes the idea of service which is private in its nature and is not to be obtained by the public, although a public utility may perform acts in its private, as distinguished from the public, capacity, in which case it is subject to the same rules as any other private person so acting. Black s Law Dictionary (Fifth Edition) defines a public utility thus at p. 1108: Public Utility: A privately owned and operated business whose services are so essential to the general public as to justify the grant of special franchises for the use of public property or of the right of eminent domain, in consideration of which the owners must serve all persons who apply, without discrimination. It is always a virtual monopoly. ONGC AND ANR. VERSUS ASSOCIATION OF NATURAL GAS CONSUMING INDUSTRIES OF GUJARAT - 1990 (5) TMI 234 - SUPREME COURT