Orissa

Anugul

CC/03/2011

Amulya Das - Complainant(s)

Versus

CESU - Opp.Party(s)

B.C.Pradhan

01 Mar 2023

ORDER

OFFICE OF THE DISTRICT CONSUMER DISPUTES REDRESSAL COMMISSION
ANGUL
 
Complaint Case No. CC/03/2011
( Date of Filing : 03 Jan 2011 )
 
1. Amulya Das
At-Benagadia,Angul
...........Complainant(s)
Versus
1. CESU
Angul Electrical Division, Angul
............Opp.Party(s)
 
BEFORE: 
 HON'BLE MR. Saroj Kumar Sahoo PRESIDENT
 HON'BLE MS. Sasmita Kumari Rath MEMBER
 
PRESENT:
 
Dated : 01 Mar 2023
Final Order / Judgement

Sri S.K.Sahoo,President.

            This   is  a petition filed  by the  complainant U/s. 12 of C.P.Act,  1986    for  some reliefs.

2.       The  case of the  complainant  is that  his  residential house is situated at Benagadia  ,having  electric supply vide    Consumer No. AC 505 - 2499. The  connected  demanded  load  was  1 K.W  under Domestic category. The  complainant   was paying the electricity bill regularly  as per  meter reading taken by the meter reader  .At the time of  taking meter reading the staff of the opp.party  never found any tampering  of meter or breaking of seal. The copy of the  bill and  receipt for September-2010  are annexed as Annexure 1 & 2   . In absence of the complainant on 23.11.2010   without  prior  intimation suddenly  some persons/staffs of the opp.party came to the  house  of the  complainant, took    thumb impression of his old  illiterate father forcibly  on  authorisation letter and  verification   report.     They    broke open  the  seal and tampered the meter  and   added a T.Vand  Heater on their report illegally and  arbitrarily  which were not available in the house . The  opp.party declared the meter defective without any test. Photo copy of Authorisation letter & Verification Report  are annexed as Annexure- 3 & 4.   The opp.parties served a notice dtd. 08.12.20110 for  provisional assessment and demanded   an   excess   Rs. 14,801.60 within 30 days  .The  photo copy of  provisional assessed report is annexed as Annexure-5. The  complainant   met the  opp.party  and  verbally lodged   complaint, who assured him to  look into the matter  .  In the   bill for   December, 2010 the opp.party  enhanced the  load from 1 K.W to 2 K.W   and  adding the  provisional assessment amount Rs. 14,801.60.The  photo copy of the  December,2010 annexed as  Annexure-6 . On the other hand  the  concerned  line man  is threatening  to  disconnect the  power supply to the   premises of the  complainant for  non-payment of the  provisional assessment  bill, for which cause of action  for filing  of the present complaint. The opp.party illegally   declared the meter defective and  enhanced the load 1 K.W to 2 K.W. Due  to the high handed action of the opp.party the complainant  has  suffered heavy loss, damage, mental agony  and  harassment   . Hence this case.

3.       Notice  was issued to    the opp.party     on 04.01.2011  .Learned  counsel for the opp.party entered his appeared on  dtd. 03.02.2011 but  no sow cause filed.

 4.      During  argument  the Learned  counsel for the   opp.party  challenged the   maintainability of the present proceeding before this  Forum. According to him in this  case there  is  a provisional assessment notice to the complainant  by the  opp.party  on 08.12.2010 , in a  proceeding which has been initiated  against him U/s. 126  of Electricity (Amendment) Act,2007.There is  no  deficiency  of  service  at all by the opp.party and the  complainant is not coming  under the definition  of  consumer. He relied on the   document  filed by the  complainant. Admittedly the  opp.party has  neither  filed written statement  nor  any documents was filed . On the  other hand  the  learned  counsel for the  complainant  vehemently urged that the present proceeding is  maintainable before this  Forum ( at present Commission)  and the point of  maintainability  cannot  be  raised at this  stage , as he has not filed  his written statement in time.

5.       Perused the  complaint petition filed by the  complainant. At Paragraph-3  of his complaint petition, the  complainant has mentioned that on 23.11.2010  some  employees of the opp.parties  came to the  house of the complainant  without  any prior  notice  and  served a   illegal report  to his  old illiterate  father  as the  complainant  was not present  at home. It is further   alleged that tactfully  those  staffs  obtained  the  Thumb impression  of the  father of the  complainant  on authorisation and  verification report   by threatening  him to disconnect the electric  supply to his  house. At paragraph- 4  it is     that  on 08.12.2010  the opp.party  served a notice  for  provisional  assessment   for  excess load and asked  him to pay an amount of Rs.  14,801.60  within 30 days. The  complainant   has filed  the   photo copy  of the  authorisation dtd. 23.11.2010 and    physical verification of  electrical installation dtd. 23.11.2010 issued by the staff  of the opp.party to  his father. On perusal of those  documents it  appears that the  father of the  complainant  was present  at the  time of   physical  verification  of the premises  of  the  complainant  and after due    authorisation  by the  father of the  complainant, the  physical verification was made by the staffs of the opp.party. The  complainant also filed the  photo copy of the  notice  for  provisional assessment along with the   photo copy of  calculation sheet received by    him  from the  organisation   of  the opp.party. On  perusal of the  said notice  for  provisional assessment it  is  clear  that  , it  has been  issued  U/s. 126  of  Electricity (Amendment) Act, 2007. In the  said  notice the  complainant  was directed to file  his  show cause before the  competent  authority within 30 days of  receipt of  said  letter as provided  U/s. 126 (3)  of Indian Electricity Act,2007 .So from the   documents  filed by the    complainant  itself  it  is clear  that  a  proceeding  U/s. 126  of Indian Electricity Act, 2007  has been initiated  by the organisation of the opp.party.   From the   provisional assessment  report it   appears that  at the time  of  verification   the  status of the   meter  was defective  one  and the  connected   load was 2 K.W  instead  of  1 K.W . The  consumption of  more  electrical  energy by the  complainant  for which he  has been authorised  to   consume  is coming  under the  category of  “unauthorised  use  of  electricity” .The unauthorised  use  of  electricity by the  complainant  has no relationship  with  “unfair trade practice” or  “restrictive  trade practice”  or  “deficiency in service”  nor does it amounts  to “hazardous service” by the    licensee. Such  act of  unauthorised use  of  electricity  has nothing to   do with  charging  price in excess .Therefore, the unauthorised  use  of  electricity by the  complainant  does not   fall within the  meaning of  “complaint” .Therefore  the present complaint  against an assessment  U/s. 126 by the opp.party  is  not maintainable  before  this  Consumer Forum or  new Commission.

6.       We  find  sufficient force  on the argument  advance by the  Learned  Counsel  for the opp.party. There is  also   no  deficiency  in service  provided by the opp.party to the  complainant. A point of  law i.e  maintainability  of the  proceeding  can be raised at   any time. So the  argument of the Learned Counsel    for the  complainant  that the  question of  maintainability  cannot be  raised  at this stage is  not  acceptable. From the  materials  on record it is  clear that the  complainant is  not  a “consumer” in this case   and there is no  deficiency  in service by the  opp.parties ( Civil Appeal No. 5466 of  2012 ,arising  out of SLP (c) No. 35906 of  2011  ,U.P. Power Corporation Ltd & others Vrs. Anis Ahmad  passed on July 1st 2013 by the Hon’ble  Supreme Court  of India) .

7.       Hence order :-

: O R D E R :

          The  case  be  and the   same is  dismissed on  contest.

 
 
[HON'BLE MR. Saroj Kumar Sahoo]
PRESIDENT
 
 
[HON'BLE MS. Sasmita Kumari Rath]
MEMBER
 

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