In Brief
An appellant sought an agricultural electricity connection and initially submitted an incomplete application in December 2010. After correcting the defect mentioned by the authority (missing VAO signature) and resubmitting in March 2011, he received no action for years and filed a writ petition. The High Court's Single Judge ordered the authority to consider his application, but the Division Bench reversed this, citing the applicant's failure to deposit the required registration fee. The Supreme Court held that the authority failed to point out this fee requirement in its original rejection letter. Since the authority must communicate all defects when returning an application under statutory procedure, it cannot later reject the resubmitted application on newly raised grounds. The Court directed the authority to consider the application from the resubmission date of March 21, 2011."
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