25.01.2016
SRI SAMARESH PRASAD CHOWDHURY, PRESIDING MEMBER.
The instant revisional application under Section 17(1(b) of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 (hereinafter referred to as “the Act”) is at the behest of the O.Ps to impeach the order No. 23 dated 20th August, 2015 passed by the Ld. District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, Paschim Medinipur (for short, Ld. District Forum) is Consumer Complaint No. 81 of 2014 thereby the application filed on behalf of the Complainant for restoration of electric service connection in the house of the Complainant was allowed with a further direction upon the O.Ps not to disconnect the electric service connection after such restoration till disposal of the consumer complaint.
The O.P. herein being Complainant initiated the complaint under Section 12 of the Act claiming himself as a consumer under the O.Ps with certain reliefs like (a) proper correction of inflated bill, (b) payment of necessary damages for mental pain and agony to the tune of Rs.50,000/- and (c) litigation cost of Rs.10,000/-.
The Complainant claimed himself to be the consumer and he is running an ice producing factory and it consumed electricity from meter No. ST727427 which is a commercial one and it consumes electricity in accordance with the need and necessity for producing ice only. In the month of June, 2014 a bill of Rs.6,70,588.29 was found outstanding as such when notice was issued upon the Complainant he approached the Ld. District Forum with the instant complaint.
The revisional jurisdiction of the State Commission flows from Section 17(1)(b) of the Act, which runs as follows:-
“to call for the records and pass appropriate orders in any consumer dispute which is pending before or has been decided by any District Forum within the State, where it appears to the State Commission that such District Forum has exercised a jurisdiction not vested in it by law, or has failed to exercise a jurisdiction so vested or has acted in exercise of its jurisdiction illegally or with material irregularity”.
On reading of the above, it is evident that the revisional jurisdiction conferred on the State Commission is limited to the extent of jurisdictional illegality or material irregularity.
The impugned order clearly postulates that at the time of hearing it was submitted on behalf of the O.Ps/W.B.S.E.D.C.L. that the consumer complaint is not maintainable because the service connection in the house of the Complainant is being used for commercial purpose. The Ld. District Forum did not decide the question till now, while in our opinion should have been considered first because unless the Complainant comes under the definition of “consumer” within the meaning of Section 2(1)(d) of the Act, the consumer complaint should be nipped in the bud and question of deciding the dispute on merit is a matter of sheer wastage of valuable public time.
Be that as it may, the allegation of the Complainant was that the bill for the month of June, 2014 was excessive. Surprisingly enough, the Complainant except filing the consumer complaint did not take any measure to remove the alleged defect of meter in question.. The law in this regard is very much clear. In accordance with the provisions of Electricity Act, 2003 the billing disputes are required to be referred to C.G.R.O./R.G.R.O. first and thereafter in case of dissatisfaction of the order, any of the parties may prefer an appeal before the Ld. Ombudsman. The Complainant did not resort the appropriate method and filed one after another application before the Ld. Dispute Forum and the Ld. District Forum in the form of injunction application passed one after another order as if a suit for declaration and injunction is pending before a Civil Court presuming the cause of action is a continuous one.
We are not oblivion to the fact that this Commission has a limited power in exercising its revisional jurisdiction unless there is jurisdictional error or the material irregularity in passing the order impugned. The facts and circumstances of the case clearly indicate that there was serious impropriety in passing the order impugned by the Ld. District Forum. The materials on record indicate a bill amounting to Rs.14,00,000/- is due and payable by the Complainant at present and Ld. Advocate appearing for the Complainant could not deny the same. On the date of filing of the complaint, the outstanding amount was much less but the Complainant is going on paying only Rs.10,000/- per month and enjoying the electricity for running his ice factory only on payment of a meagre amount of Rs.10,000/- per month without making any application before the appropriate authority to refer the dispute of bill.
Therefore, we have no hesitation to hold that the impugned order suffers from impropriety and material irregularity. However, since we feel that the point as to whether the Complainant enjoying the electricity for commercial purpose or not is yet to be decided, we think that an order directing the Complainant (O.P. herein) to make payment of 50% of the outstanding amount amounting to Rs.7,00,000/- in favour of W.B.S.E.D.C.L. would meet the ends of justice to restore electric service connection.
In view of the above, we allow the revision petition on contest without cost by modifying the order impugned with a direction upon the O.P. i.e. the Complainant of the case to make payment of 50% of outstanding bill amount i.e. Rs.7,00,000/- in favour of the petitioners/O.Ps of the case and on payment of the same the O.Ps shall restore electric service connection in the house of the Complainant.
The Registrar of this Commission is directed to send a copy of this order to the Ld. District Forum for information with a direction upon the parties to appear before the Ld. District Forum on 29.02.2016. Ld. District Forum is requested to dispose of the consumer complaint as expeditiously as possible and in doing so, we make it clear that our observations made hereinabove are tentative and the Ld. District Forum should not be influenced by any of such observations and shall proceed with the consumer dispute in accordance with law.
Let a copy of this order be forwarded to the Ld. District Forum, Paschim Medinipur for information.
