(As Per A.A.Jain, Hon’ble Member)
1 Complainant’s case in short is that he has water supply connection of Opposite Party at his resident bearing No. 1708/9 He alleged that water supply meter of O.P. was not in working condition from last 6-7 years. Complainant informed time to time to O.P. but O.P. has not taken any action. Beside this O.P. issued a false notice dt. 05-07-2006 for recovery of Rs.94,771/- to the complainant without any detail duration of pendency.
2 Complainant earlier deposited Rs.10,000/- against bill of water consumption on dt. 16-10-2001 . After this complainant has not paid any amount.
3 Complainant prayed to quash the bill of water charges i.e. Rs. 94,771/- and direct to O.P. to install a new meter and issue new bill as per consumption, and Rs.5000/- as cost and Rs.5000/- as mental torture.
4 In response to notice u/s 13 of C.P.Act 1986 O.P. appeared on 27-12-2006 through his counsel and sought time for reply. Hence time was granted and case was posted for reply on 02-01-2007, 09-01-2007 with cost Rs.100/- and on 16-01-2007.
5 O.P. filed reply on 16-01-2007 without affidavit, Then O.P. was not appeared on any hearing after filing of reply on 23-01-07. O.P. absent and case was fixed for argument on 29-01-2007. Complainant present and done his argument . O.P. absent . So this case was decided on merit.
6 On verifying all the record and pleadings of the complainant only point arise for our consideration whether complainant entitled for any relief as sough in prayer and our finding is mentioned herein under due to following reasons.
REASONS
7 Complainant has failed to state as from which date he has not paid the bill, when he use the water of O.P. It is needless to mention here that the complainant is duty bound to be well aware about the bills and their payment. Complainant submit in his complaint (Ex.1) para 2 that, ‘Water meter is closed from 6-7 years and is not in running condition and in para 7 that meter is closed from 5-6 years.In another case O.P. filed bye-laws and Sr.No.14 state that :
14 “If the water bill is lost, it shall be the responsibility of the consumer to approach the engineer-in-charge for the collection of duplicate copy of water bill. The Board shall not extend the period for the payment of water charges on the ground of lost bill and the water bill shall be deemed to have been received within 3 days of the date mentioned on the bill.”
Sr.No.13(2) “In the case of any dispute where the consumer feels that the charges are more, he shall first make the payment of the bill under protest and than file a complaint to the Engineer in charge.”
8 If O.P. fails to submit bill which may be monthly or bimonthly it is duty of complainant to collect the bill and make the payment there of . It meter was stopped or faulty then also complaint has to pay minimum charges of water bill whether he was used water or not. So in our view complainant is entitled for payment of water bill as minimum charges as per the rate prevailing time to time.
9 Second issue of the complainant was bill plus delayed payment charges i.e. surcharge. As per bye-laws Sr.No.15 which states that :
“In the case of failure by the consumer to pay the dues of water charges, meter rent or any other charges under these bye-laws including delayed payment charges within 30 days of the date of receipt of the bill by the consumer, he is liable to pay delayed payment charges at 1.5% per month of such dues, subject to a minimum of Rs.1/-.
In case in hand O.P. also has not recovered the amount after 06-10-2001 O.P. neglected recovery of water dues, only they compounding water bill, delayed payment, meter rent etc. for next bill to save the limitation period for recovery.
10 It appeared from the record that the disputed amount is outstanding against the complainant since last more that five years and even then the O.P. has not taken any steps to recover the said arrears, so O.P. is not entitled to recover ‘Delay Payment charges’ as claimed in the demand bill. Therefore the O.P. directed to issue corrected bill to the complainant excluding Delay payment charges. So we proceed to pass following order.
O R D E R
1. Complaint is “partly” allowed.
2 The O.P. is directed to issue corrected bill to the complainant by charging at ‘minimum charges’ and excluding delayed payment charges, within one month from the date of this order.
3 The O.P. is further directed to change the meter, if so required , at the cost of complainant without any unreasonable delay and issue regular bill.
4 Under the circumstance, no order to cost.
