Electric field is a field of force. Work will be done on or by the body, if a body which is being acted upon by a force is moved from one point to another. The field is called as conservative field, if there is no mechanism by which the energy represented by the work can be dissipated. This energy must be stored in either potential or kinetic form.

In a conservative field, the work done in moving from one point to another is independent of the path. If a charge is moved from point A to B over one path and again from point B to A over another path, the work done would be different for both the paths.