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Electricity Act 2026: New Penalty Rules

If a penalty notice under the Electricity Act, 2003 has reached you, check its date first. On 1 June 2026 a group of penalty figures in that Act changed, one of them by a factor of ten, and one offence was removed from the Act altogether. This page sets the old wording against the new, then works through the compounding table in section 152 that lets some offences be settled by paying a published sum.

Electricity Act 2003 penalty and compounding changes from 1 June 2026

What each penalty was, and what it is now

The changes come from serial number 58 of the Schedule to the Jan Vishwas Amendment of Provisions Act, 2026, Act 8 of 2026. The middle column below is the central text India Code carried before that date; the right column is the Gazette text of the amending Act.

Provision Before 1 June 2026 From 1 June 2026
Section 139, negligently breaking or damaging works Fine “which may extend to ten thousand rupees” Penalty of “not less than five thousand rupees but which may extend to one lakh rupees”, imposed by an officer duly authorised by the Appropriate Government. A repeat offence carries a fine in the same range
Section 140, intentionally injuring works Fine up to ₹10,000 Fine of “not less than five thousand rupees but may extend to one lakh rupees”
Section 141, maliciously extinguishing a public lamp Fine up to ₹2,000 Omitted. The section is gone from the Act
Section 142, penalty ordered by the Appropriate Commission Penalty “which shall not exceed one lakh rupees for each contravention” Penalty of “not less than ten thousand rupees but may extend to five lakh rupees”, still for each contravention
Section 142, while the failure continues Additional penalty of up to ₹6,000 for every day Additional penalty of ₹1,000 to ₹10,000 for every day
Section 146, failing to comply with an order or direction “imprisonment for a term which may extend to three months or with fine which may extend to one lakh rupees, or with both” in respect of each offence Fine of ₹10,000 to ₹10,00,000 in respect of each offence. No imprisonment
Section 146, while the failure continues Additional fine of up to ₹5,000 for every day Additional fine of ₹1,000 to ₹50,000 for every day

Three things do not fit into a table. Section 142 got wider, not just dearer: its marginal heading became “Penalty by Appropriate Commission for non-compliance of order or direction”, and the words “or any direction issued by the Commission” were replaced by “or any order or direction issued under the Act”. The Commission is no longer confined to its own directions.

Section 141 is gone. It read: “Whoever, maliciously extinguishes any public lamp shall be punishable with fine which may extend to two thousand rupees.” Clause C of serial number 58 omits it. Whether some other law covers the same conduct was not checked for this page, so nothing here should be read as saying it is now lawful.

A penalty in one sub-section, a fine in the next. New section 139 calls the money a “penalty” imposed by an authorised officer in sub-section 1, then calls the same range a “fine” in sub-section 2. Those are not loose synonyms in Indian statutes: a penalty of this kind is imposed by an officer, a fine ordinarily by a court. If you are contesting a section 139 notice, ask in writing under which sub-section it was issued, and by whom.

The notification that switched this on

The Jan Vishwas Act, 2026 did not commence in one go. Section 1 lets the Central Government appoint different dates for different enactments in the Schedule, and the Ministry of Power issued its own notification, dated 18 May 2026:

“S.O. 2552(E). In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (2) of section 1 of the Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Act, 2026 (8 of 2026), the Central Government hereby appoints the 1st June, 2026 as the date on which the provisions of the said Act, in so far as it relates to serial number 58 and the entries relating thereto in the Schedule to the said Act, relating to the Electricity Act, 2003 (36 of 2003) shall come into force.”

Note the scope: it commences the Act only in so far as it relates to serial number 58. Other Schedule entries carry their own dates, so 1 June 2026 is not the start date for the whole Jan Vishwas Act.

The compounding table in section 152

This is the part most likely to be misread. Two of the six rows in the substituted table are new; the four theft rows are not. The same rates, on the same per kilowatt basis, were already in section 152 before the amendment.

Offence Sum to be collected New in 2026, or carried over
Section 135, theft of electricity, Industrial Service ₹20,000 per KW or HP or part of it for low tension supply, and per KVA of contracted demand for high tension Carried over
Section 135, Commercial Service ₹10,000, same unit basis Carried over
Section 135, Agricultural Service ₹2,000, same unit basis Carried over
Section 135, Other Services ₹4,000, same unit basis Carried over
Section 138, interference with meters or works of the licensee ₹10,000, flat, nothing to multiply New in 2026
Section 140, penalty for intentionally injuring works ₹10,000, flat, nothing to multiply New in 2026

The unit matters more than the number. A theft figure runs per kilowatt or horse power, or part of it, on a low tension connection, and per kilovolt ampere of contracted demand on a high tension one. Quoting ₹20,000 as the whole sum for an industrial connection understates what is demanded, often by a lot.

What genuinely changed in section 152:

Treat “shall accept” as a change in the wording of the duty, not as a guaranteed right to settle. Neither the amending Act nor the notification says what a consumer can do if an application to compound is refused.

The rates are also not frozen. The proviso under the table lets the Appropriate Government “by notification in the Official Gazette, amend the rates specified in the Table above”, so your state may have moved them.

What compounding is, and what it is not

Compounding means paying a published sum to end the criminal side of the matter. It is not a finding that you did nothing, and it is not a discount scheme. Sub-section 2 of section 152 says that on payment a person in custody for that offence shall be set at liberty and no proceedings shall be instituted or continued in any criminal court, and sub-section 3 deems acceptance of the sum to amount to an acquittal.

Two limits deserve more attention than any rupee figure here.

You get one. Sub-section 4 says compounding “shall be allowed only once for any person or consumer”. Not once a year, not once per connection. Once.

Section 152 covers the offence, and nothing else. None of its four sub-sections deals with the licensee bill or the assessment for the electricity said to have been used, so do not assume the sum settles that too.

Theft under section 135 was not amended

No clause of serial number 58 touches section 135. Its list of dishonest acts, from tapping a line to using a tampered meter, stands as before, as do its punishment of imprisonment up to three years, or fine, or both, and its separate provisos for a load that does not exceed 10 kilowatt and one that exceeds it. Section 138 was not amended either and still carries its own imprisonment term.

Section 135 appears in the 2026 changes only as a row label in the compounding table, at rates that did not move. Nothing here made electricity theft cheaper or decriminalised it. Imprisonment was removed from section 146 alone.

If a notice has just reached you

  1. Find the section number printed on it. Everything above turns on whether it says 135, 138, 139, 140, 142 or 146.
  2. Check the date of the alleged offence against 1 June 2026, and keep the envelope.
  3. Ask in writing who issued it and under what authority. Section 139 sub-section 1 requires an officer duly authorised by the Appropriate Government.
  4. Check whether the offence can be compounded at all. Sections 139, 142 and 146 are not in the section 152 table, so there is no published sum to pay and the answer is to contest the notice, not to settle it.
  5. Before compounding anything, weigh the once-only rule.

Most of the paperwork already exists on file. Ask the Central Public Information Officer of your state power or energy department, and the distribution licensee if it is a public authority, for the notification naming the officer authorised under section 152 in your district; any notification amending the Table rates under the proviso; the officer authorised under section 139 sub-section 1; the prescribed form and receipt for compounding; and how many applications your district received, accepted and rejected last financial year.

New to this? Start with how to file an RTI, then file it online. The AI RTI Drafter will word those questions. If no reply arrives in the time the RTI Act allows, or the answer is a refusal, go to a Section 19 first appeal with the First Appeal Builder. The RTI Playbook covers departments that answer a statutory question narrowly, and the practical guides cover the rest. If your real problem is a bill or a supply failure rather than a penalty, see making an electricity complaint instead.

A worked example, illustrative

Vikram Sethi, an illustrative consumer, is offered compounding under section 135 on a 5 kilowatt low tension connection classed under Other Services. The Table rate is ₹4,000 per kilowatt or part of it, so five kilowatt gives ₹20,000. Under section 138 the figure would be a flat ₹10,000, with nothing to multiply. The name and load are illustrative; the rates are from the Table as substituted from 1 June 2026. Which category applies is decided by the authority and the licensee tariff classification, not by the consumer, so confirm it in writing before paying.

FAQ

Did electricity theft become cheaper on 1 June 2026?

No. The four compounding rates for section 135 are unchanged, and section 135 itself was not amended. What changed in section 152 is that compounding was extended to sections 138 and 140, that “may” became “shall”, and that the Code of Criminal Procedure references became Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita ones.

My notice is dated before 1 June 2026. Which figures apply?

This page will not guess. S.O. 2552(E) appoints 1 June 2026 as the date the serial number 58 entries come into force, and neither it nor serial number 58 contains a transitional rule for proceedings already begun. Ask the issuing authority in writing which version it is proceeding under, put the same question in an RTI request, and keep the reply.

Can I compound the same kind of offence twice?

No. Section 152 sub-section 4 says compounding “shall be allowed only once for any person or consumer”. It was not amended, so the limit applies to the newly compoundable offences under sections 138 and 140 too.

Does paying the compounding sum end the criminal case?

Under sub-section 2, on payment a person in custody for that offence is to be set at liberty and no proceedings are to be instituted or continued in any criminal court. Sub-section 3 deems acceptance to amount to an acquittal, now read with section 278 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023.

Section 146 has no jail term now. Is it still an offence?

Yes. Only the imprisonment option went. A person who fails to comply is still punishable, now with a fine of not less than ₹10,000 which may extend to ₹10,00,000 in respect of each offence, plus an additional ₹1,000 to ₹50,000 for every day the failure continues. Three contraventions on one notice means three lots of that fine, not one.

Do the same rupee figures apply in every state?

The Electricity Act is central, so the amended sections read the same everywhere. The rates are not: the proviso to section 152 sub-section 1 lets the Appropriate Government amend the Table rates by notification in the Official Gazette. Ask your state for a copy before assuming the central figures are what you owe.

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