Contract – State, a party to the contract must abide by Article14 – Reasonable period to consider an application – Applicationmade by the appellant for reduction to 10000 Kilovolt-Ampere (KVA)– No steps effectuating such request were taken despite repeatedfollow ups by the appellant – Action of the respondents in takingconsiderable time from when the said application was made, to whenthe revised agreement was entered into, if arbi trary andunreasonable – Held: Yes – State action irrespective of being in thecontractual realm must abide by Article 14 – Appellant wasunjustifiably asked to furnish costs for unutilized electricity whichshould not have extended beyond six months (considering‘reasonable period’ to consider an application, to be so), for aperiod much larger thereto, rendering such action unreasonableand arbitrary – On facts, it is not open for the respondents to contendthat the petitioner is not liable for the refund of the amount depositedunder protest towards the bills so generated taking the maximumload to be 23000 KVA – Particularly, when at no point in time, theappellant neither sought for nor consumed the electricity more thanthe maximum demand of 10000 KVA – Acknowledging the financialhealth of the appellant, in the 1999 agreement, the respondent oughtto have taken a decision on the appellant request with a reasonabledispatch and terms which ought to have been within a period latestby six months and not two and a half years as was eventually done– Judgment passed by High Court set aside – Respondent to returnthe amount paid by the appellant for 13000 KVA, in excess to itsrequest of maximum sanctioned demand of 10000 KVA – Constitutionof India – Article 14 – Doctrines/Principles – Sick IndustrialCompanies Act, 1985 – s.3(1)(O).Doctrines/Principles – Principle of reasonable time –Discussed – Contract.