Complainant Buta Ram has filed the present complaint against the opposite parties U/S 12 of the Consumer Protection Act, seeking necessary directions to the opposite parties may kindly be directed to produce the record of consumption from the time when meter of complainant was installed outside the office up to date and record of consumption before the period of installing the same outside the office and also to disclose the name of the person to whom the connection of electricity supply of complainant’s meter has been attached as complainant is paying the bill of that person and that unknown person is paying the bill of office of complainant which is much less that the consumption of said person and OP’s may also be directed to verify the whole record of consumption of complainant and the person to whom the supply is misconnected and refund the excess amount received from the complainant to him after calculating the same and correct the supply of meter of complainant and OP’s may also be burdened with heavy cost of Rs.50,000/- alongwith litigation expenses to the tune of Rs. 20,000/- in the interest of justice.

2.       The case of the complainant in brief is that he is using electricity connection having consumer no.G43CF42 and A/c No.3000270409 and paying the bills regularly to OP’s. It is further alleged that he is running a NGO under the name and style as “SARVJAN GRAMIN VIKAS SANSTHAN” on no profit no loss basis and is president of said NGO and doing works of public welfare and the said connection is installed in the office of said NGO as such same is being used as NRS, but no commercial work is being done by the complainant. It is further alleged that usually the electricity of said office remained off in night time and used only in day time from 9 am to 5 pm and the meter remains in running condition despite even if the main switch of meter is off. It is further alleged that the meter in question was installed outside the office in the month of June 2015 and after that bill of the said connection was increased due to reasons unknown to the complainant and he continued to pay the bills to OP’s in good faith. Usually the bill of the complainant remained under Rs.4000/-. It is further alleged that, in the month of May 2017, he also move an application to the OP’s for changing the meter in question but no action has been taken by OP’s. It is further alleged that, an employee of OP’s unofficially informed the complainant that reason of excess bill of complainant is that when the meter was installed outside the office the same was misconnected with some other person and that man’s consumption of electricity is being shown in the meter of complainant and he is paying the bill for the same under impression that same is being used in the office, which otherwise remained off in the night time. It is further alleged that, repeated request of the complainant the OP’s intentionally not disclosing the name of that person and due to this he is suffering huge loss as he has to pay the bill of some other person due to the fault of the OP’s. It is further alleged that, he is paying excess bill to the OP’s, which he never used. Thus, there is deficiency in service on the part of the opposite parties. Hence, this complaint.

3.    Notice of the complaint was issued to the opposite parties who appeared through their counsel and filed their written reply taking the preliminary objections that the complaint is not maintainable in the present form and the connection in question is NRS/Commercial one, hence this commission has no jurisdiction to decide the complaint. It is further pleaded that, the complaint is bad for non- joinder of necessary party. PSPCL has not been made party and the complainant is being charged bill on the basis of by monthly bills and meter of the complainant is ok. Hence, complaint is vague, wrong, false and has been filed on the basis of mis-conception. On Merits, it was submitted that, connection in question is NRS/Commercial one and not DS and the tariff of NRS is higher than DS connection. It is further pleaded that Meter is ok and giving correct reading and the meter has been shifted and installed outside the building and about 9/10 bills were above and in b/w the amount of Rs.4350/- to 9330/-. It is further pleaded that, no application as alleged has been received from the complainant and it is specifically denied that meter of the complainant is misconnected with some other person’s connection and it has also been denied that, due to the negligent act of the OP’s the complainant is paying excess bill to the OP’s for the consumption of electricity. All other averments made in the complaint have been vehemently denied and lastly prayed that the complaint may be dismissed with cost.

4.       Ld. counsel for the complainant has tendered into evidence affidavit of complainant (Ex.CW1/A) alongwith other documents (Ex.C-1 & Ex.C-2).

5.       Ld. counsel for the opposite parties has tendered into evidence affidavit of Dilbagh Singh ( SDO, Sub-Division City Gurdaspur, PSPCL) (Ex.OP -1) along with other documents (Ex.OP-2 & Ex.OP3).

6.       Rejoinder not filed by the complainant.

7.       Written arguments not filed by both the parties and we have heard the counsel for the complainant, however none has appeared on behalf of opposite parties as such present complaint is being disposed off after going through the record.

8.       As enumerated above the present complaint was filed by the complainant regarding increase in the electricity bill from June/2015 of his electric connection having Account No. 3000270409 installed in the office of NGO, “Sarvjan Gramin Vikas Sansthan” due to shifting of the meter outside their premises by the opposite party. It was apprehended by the complainant that the rise in the amount of bills was due to wrong connections done by the officials of opposite party by misconnecting their meter with other consumers. It has also been alleged that OP's has also not supplied the consumption data for the period before and after shifting of meter and other information required by him. It was also mentioned that usually their electricity bills are about Rs.4000/- only. But the complainant has not put on record any evidences to justify their allegations except 2 Receipt of electricity bills as Ex.C-1 & Ex.C-2 amounting Rs.3710/- and Rs.9330/- for the month 6/5 and 9/16.

9.       OP’s in their written reply denied all the allegations and pleaded that this electric connection is under NRS category which is having high unit rate and the bills were being issued as per their actual consumption. It is further pleaded that there is nothing like misconnection of any other connection with the electric connection of the complainant. OP submitted the copy of consumption data as Ex.OP-2 and copy of the payment list as Ex.OP-3 in support of their statement.

10.     From the above details of the case it is seen that the consumption of electricity of this connection in question as per Ex.OP-2 for the month from 9/15 to 1/17 was 300 to 800 units except for the months from 3/16 to 9/16 for which the consumption was about 1200 units. It does not justify the point of misconnection with other consumers. The complainant has not given any proof of shifting of meter in 6/15. Moreover, the onus lies on the complainant to prove allegations with cogent evidences regarding increase in electricity bills due to wrong connection with other consumer but the complainant fail to do so. However, the complainant has every right to get information regarding his electric connection from opposite Party and opposite parties are bound to supply such information as required to their respected consumers.

11.     In view of the above we are of the considered opinion that the present complaint can be best disposed off by giving direction to opposite parties. So opposite party no.1 is here by directed to supply the required information/data to the complainant within 30 days from the receipt of copy of orders. The present complaint is disposed off accordingly with no order as to cost.  

12.      The complaint could not be decided within the stipulated period due to heavy pendency of Court Cases, vacancies in the office and due to pandemic of Covid-19.

13.     Copy of the order be communicated to the parties free of charges. After compliance, file be consigned to record room. 

                                (Lalit Mohan Dogra)

                                                                             President.   

Announced:                                          (B.S.Matharu)

July 24, 2023                                                Member.

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