Complainant Balbir Kaur has filed the present complaint against the opposite parties U/S 12 of the Consumer Protection Act (for short, C.P.Act.) seeking necessary directions to the opposite parties to reinstall/restore her electricity connection bearing no.3005950305 without making illegal and unjust demand of Rs.50,000/-. Opposite parties be further directed to pay Rs.50,000/- as compensatory costs on account of mental torture and physical harassment suffered by her from the hands of the opposite parties, in the interest of justice and fair play.
2. The case of the complainant in brief is that she is a Senior citizen having age 69 years. She and her husband purchased house measuring 0-7 marla in the name of their sons namely Jatinder Singh and Harpreet Singh from Chanchal Singh, son of Buta Singh son of Jeewan Singh of village Kot Todar Mal, Tehsil and District Gurdaspur vide agreement on 11.9.2006 and delivered its possession to her and her sons. The said house falls within the Lal Lakir of the village and a domestic electricity connection bearing no.3005950305 which was running in her name. She has further pleaded that the said meter connection was newly installed by the officials of the opposite parties on 24.3.2021 after duly verifying by the opposite parties and on depositing requisite fee/security and no bill has yet been issued by the opposite parties. On 08.05.2021, the official of the opposite party no.1 disconnected her electric connection and removed the electric meter from her house illegally and forcibly without assigning any reason and without her consent. The said meter was installed at some distance from her house. The opposite party no.1 never gave any intimation letter or notice to her at the time of removing the electric meter. While disconnecting electric meter connection, the officials of the opposite parties also took away the electric wire of the meter which was got purchased by her from her own pocket i.e. Rs.1325/-. Even, she has no knowledge regarding removal of the meter connection and she came to know after three/fours hours through their neighbourer. She has next pleaded that now she is in dire need of aforesaid domestic connection in these hot summer days in the said premises and on 10.5.2021, she moved an application before the opposite party no. l in which she requested to restore/install the electric meter connection for her own use and residential purposes, but opposite party no.1 did not pay any heed towards her request. As such, she was compelled to live with her grandsons house at Sant Nagar Gurdaspur. Even she had personally approached office of opposite party no.1 and asked the reason of disconnecting connection and removing her meter without her consent but opposite party no.1 did not give any satisfactory reply for removal of the electric connection rather he used rough language against her and demanded Rs.50,000/- from her for restoration/reinstallation of the meter connection otherwise her meter connection would not be restored, this act of the opposite parties is altogether illegal, null and void. Actually, the Sarpanch of her village is totally inimical against her and her husband, having ill-will against them and now she come to know that the said Sarpanch with the active connivance of Malkit Singh Sandhu SDO PSPCL Qadian/opposite party no.1 got disconnected her electric connection due to party faction in the village. 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 bad for non-joinder of necessary party. Jasbir Singh Sarpanch of village Kot Todar Mal was necessary party to this complaint; the present complaint is not maintainable and the alleged agreement to sell does not confer any title over the land where the disputed connection was installed and disconnected. On merits, it was submitted that an electric connection for domestic supply of electricity was installed in the name of complainant Balbir Kaur. She has only an agreement to sell of land in her favour in which she got installed the disputed electric connection in her name. It was further submitted that on the application of the complainant a domestic supply electric connection bearing Account No.3005950305 was installed in the name of the complainant Balbir Kaur in the premises at village Kot Todar Mal, Tehsil and Distt.Gurdaspur. The complainant had submitted the sale agreement to sell as her ownership over the premises where the disputed electric connection was installed. She did not submit any sale deed in her favour of the premises in dispute. The agreement to sell does not confer any title of any property. It was next submitted that on 30.4.2021 the Sarpanch of village Kot Todar Mal namely Jasbir Singh moved an application to this office of opposite party no.1 i.e. SDO of PSPCL Sub Division, Qadian by mentioning therein that the land/premises where the complainant Balbir Kaur had got installed the disputed electric connection, belongs to the Shamlat land of village Kot Todar Mal and Balbir Kaur complainant has no concern with this Shamlat land. She is the resident of Gurdaspur City. She is the resident of Gurdaspur City. In the last of his application he made request to disconnect the disputed electric connection which was running in the name of complainant Balbir Kaur at Shamlat land of Village Kot Todar Mal. As such, this connection was disconnected vide Job Order for Device removal No.100013336392 dated 05.05.2021. The meter of this connection was also removed from the disputed premises. Lateron, in order to verify the ownership of the complainant Balbir Kaur over the disputed premises a letter vide memo No.528 dated 11.05.2021 was sent to Block Development and Panchayat Officer, Kahnuwan in order to certify the ownership over the disputed premises of complainant Balbir Kaur. The B.D.P.O. Kahnuwan replied through a letter vide memo No.2331 dated 31.05.2021 whereby he reported that no such record is available with the office of B.D.P.O. Kahnuwan regarding the land which falls into the Lal Lakir of village Kot Toder Mal. It was also mentioned in the letter that this office has no record pertaining to this land. Again another letter vide memo No.653 dated 02.06.2021 was sent to the office of Block Development and Panchyat Officer Kahnuwan certifying the ownership of Balbir Kaur over the premises in dispute where the disputed electric connection was previously installed and disconnected later on. Apart from this, another letter vide memo No.656 dated 03.06.2021 was also issued to complainant Balbir Kaur for the production of documents relating to her ownership over the premises in dispute. It was also mentioned in this letter on the clarification of her ownership over the disputed premises the electric connection will be re-installed. Another Memo No.808 dated 07.07.2021 was also sent to the office of Naib Tehsildar Kahnuwan by opposite party no.1 to demarcate and verify the ownership of complainant Balbir Kaur over the premises in dispute. Without awaiting the report of Naib Tehsildar, Kahnuwan and B.D.P.O. Kahnuwan Balbir Kaur preferred the present complaint before this Hon'ble Commission. All other averments made in the complaint has been vehemently denied and lastly prayed that the complaint may be dismissed with costs.
4. Alongwith the complaint, complainant has filed his own affidavit Ex.CW-1/A, affidavit of Bira son of Charan Dass Ex.CW-2/A and affidavit of Surinder Singh CW-3/A and copies of documents Ex.C-1 and Ex.C-18 and closed the evidence.
5. Alongwith the written reply, opposite parties have filed affidavit of Er.Malkiat Singh SDO, PSPCL Sub Division Qadian, Tehsil Batala Ex.OP-1 and copies of documents Ex.OP-2 to Ex.OP-10.
6. Rejoinder filed by the complainant.
7. Written arguments have been filed by both the parties.
8. We have carefully gone through the pleadings of counsels for the parties; written arguments as well as oral arguments advanced by their respective counsels and have also appreciated the evidence produced on record with the valuable assistance of the learned counsel for the complainant for the purposes of adjudication of the present complaint.
9. The electrical connection No.3005950305 was released by opposite party to the complainant for domestic use in the village Kot Todar Mal, Tehsil and District Gurdaspur based on the documents submitted by the complainant. The dispute regarding ownership of land was raised by the Village Sarpanch with opposite party but no contrary document was placed on record by opposite party to negate the ownership of the said land even though correspondence for the same was taken up by PSPCL with B.D.O. ( Ex.C-5). The house site falls within the Lal Lakir of village Kot Todar Mal and an agreement to purchase Ex.C-3 alongwith Ex.C-6 and C-7 were provided as proof of ownership. The same document or contents of the document have not been refuted any evidence by opposite parties nor any evidence of otherwise has been placed on record.
10. It is a known fact that electricity is a basic necessity of life and not luxury. This act of disconnection of domestic electric connection of Balbir Kaur by PSPCL on the mere asking by Sarpanch of village amounts to deficiency in service.
11. In view of the aforesaid discussions, facts and circumstances, we partly allow the present complaint and opposite party is hereby directed to restore the electrical connection in the name of complainant Balbir Kaur at the said premises within a period of 15 days from the date of receipt of certified copy of order. Opposite party is further directed to pay Rs.5,000/- as compensation on account of disconnection of electricity connection and complainant also faced hardships for which she is entitled compensation.
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.
(Naveen Puri)
President
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Announced: (Raghbir Singh Sukhija)
May 26, 2022 Member
*MK*
