BEFORE THE DISTRICT CONSUMER DISPUTES REDRESSAL FORUM, AMRITSAR.

Consumer Complaint No. 832 of 2017

Date of Institution: 28.11.2017

Date of Decision: 25.2.2019 

Sh. Amandeep Singh Aged 33 years S/o Sh. Surinder Singh R/o H.No. 65, Gali No. 3, Shaheed Udham Singh Nagar, Amritsar 9876263632

Complainant

Versus

XEN, Water Supply and Sewerage Department, Municipal Corporation, Ranjit Avenue, Opposite Vishal Mega Mart, Amritsar

Opposite Party

Complaint under section 11 & 12  of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 as amended upto date.

Present: For the Complainant: Sh. Vikram Puri,Advocate

              For the Opposite Party: Sh.U.K.Gaind,Advocate

Coram

Sh. Charanjit Singh, President

Sh.Anoop Sharma,  Member

Ms.Rachna Arora, Member.

Order dictated by:

Sh. Charanjit Singh, President

1.       Amandeep Singh, complainant has brought the instant complaint under section 11 & 12  of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 on the allegations that the  one water supply and sewerage connection bearing account No. 1378/1 having ID No. 170694 was installed  at building No. 1242/111, Gali Uthan Wali Chownk Pragdass Asr. In the name of S. Avneet Singh S/o Gurbax  and the present complainant has taken  the said guest house on rent from the owner of guest house last year i.e. in the year 2016 and a license deed in this respect was duly executed between the complainant and S. Prabhjot Singh. There are six rooms in the said guest house and the complainant is running the said guest house for the purpose of earning livelihood by way of self employment and he has only employed one person in the said guest house. The bill of the complainant never exceeded Rs. 1300/- to Rs. 2000/-. The complainant was shocked when the opposite party issued the disputed bill dated 15.9.2017 for Rs. 1,05,822/- if payable by due date and if paid after due date Rs. 1,16,404/-. After receipt of bill complainant approached the opposite party and requested them to furnish him the detail and reasons for issuing the exorbitant bill , but to no effect. The complainant also showed certain bills dated 27.10.2016 for Rs. 1200/- and bill dated 21.4.2017 for Rs. 1320/- and requested them to cancel the bill in question  but instead of listening the request of the complainant, the official of the opposite party manually made some changes in the bill amount from 1,05,822/- to Rs. 51,971/- if paid by due date and from Rs. 1,16,404/- to Rs. 59,414/- if paid after due date. The said bill issued by the opposite party dated 15.9.2017 is null, void, arbitrary and against the principle of natural justice which is liable to be set aside.  It is pertinent to mention here that before issuing the impugned bill, no separate personal hearing was ever given to the complainant and no objections were ever sought by the opposite party from the complainant and no show  cause notice was ever issued by the opposite party. The act of the opposite party is otherwise unfair trade practice and deficiency in service . Vide instant complaint, complainant has sought for the following reliefs:-

(a)     Opposite party be directed to cancel the bill dated 15.9.2017 being excessive one for a sum of Rs. 59,414/-  after making corrections by the opposite party and to issue correct bill;

(b)     Compensation to the tune of Rs. 20000/- alongwith adequate litigation expenses may also be awarded to the complainant.

Hence, this complaint.

2.       Upon notice, opposite party appeared and filed written version in which it was submitted that the complainant is not the consumer qua the connection in dispute as the connection is granted in the name of Avneet Singh S/o Gurbax Singh,who is registered consumer of the same, so the complainant has got no locus standi to file the present complaint. The alleged dispute raised in the present complaint is not covered under Consumer dispute as such the present complaint does not lie before this Forum as the Municipal Corporation Amritsar is collecting water/sewerage charges as tax as per provisions of Pb.Municipal Corporation Act and no complaint lies regarding payment of  tax. It was submitted that the connection bearing account No. 13781/170694/3 is running in the name of Avneet Singh and there are arrears of water and sewerage charges in the said connection which the consumer has failed to pay so far. The reading of the meter in question was recorded as 3381 kiloliter as entered in the record uptil 30.12.2014. The premises remained locked during the period 30.12.2014 to 30.6.2016 and during this period the bills were issued as ‘locked premises’. The opposite party has installed a new software to issue bills to the consumer and according to new software the bill was issued as per new reading only as 6962 kiloliter upto the period 30.6.2017 and arrears were not included. The consumer paid Rs. 2460/- and Rs. 1320/- during the said period and after adjustment of the said amount paid by the consumer still an amount of Rs. 56094/- was payable by the consumer upto the period 30.6.2017 which are arrears pending regarding the connection in dispute which have not been paid so far. The amount is legally recoverable from the consumer regarding the connection in dispute . There is no need to issue show cause notice as the said amount pertains to arrears of connection in dispute and not to any extra charges or demand.. While denying and controverting other allegations, dismissal of complaint was prayed.

3.       In his bid to prove the case  Sh. Vikram Puri,Adv.counsel for the complainant tendered into evidence affidavit of the complainant Ex.C-1 alongwith documents Ex.C- t6o Ex.C-6 and closed the evidence on behalf of the complainant.

4.       To rebut the aforesaid evidence Sh.U.K.Gaind,Adv.counsel for the opposite party tendered into evidence affidavit of sh.Tilak Raj, XEN Ex.OP1 alongwith documents Ex.OP2 to Ex.OP3 and closed the evidence on behalf of the opposite party.

5.       We have heard the ld.counsel for the parties and have carefully gone through the record on the file.

6.       From the appreciation of the facts and circumstances of the case, it becomes evident that complainant has been using the water supply connection bearing account No. 1378/1 having ID No. 170694 installed in guest house which was in the name of S. Avneet Singh  which was taken by the complainant on rent , in the year 2016. It was the case of the complainant his bill never exceeded Rs. 1300/- to Rs. 2000/-, but the opposite party issued an exorbitant bill dated 15.9.2017 for Rs. 1,05,822/- by due date and Rs. 1,16,404/- after due date,which the complainant has got corrected from the opposite party and the demand was decreased to Rs. 51,971/- by due date and Rs. 59,414/- after due date. In this regard the plea of the opposite party is that there are arrears of water and sewerage charges  in the connection in dispute bearing account No. 13781/170694/3 which was  running in the name of Avneet Singh , for the period from 30.12.2014 to 30.6.2016 as the premises remained locked during this period . It was further pleaded that the complainant is not consumer of the opposite party as the connection stands in the name of Avneet Singh. It has further been pleaded that the alleged dispute raised in the present complaint is not covered under Consumer dispute as such the present complaint does not lie before this Forum as the Municipal Corporation Amritsar is collecting water/sewerage charges as tax as per provisions of Pb.Municipal Corporation Act and no complaint lies regarding payment of  tax.

7.       From the above discussion, it stands proved on record that complainant has taken the premises on rent, where the disputed water and sewerage connection was installed  in the year 2016 and the said demand raised by the opposite party stands for the period from 30.12.2014 to 30.6.2016 as the premises remained locked during this period .  As such the opposite party raised the said demand from the owner of the building for the said period i.e. from 30.12.2014 to 30.6.2016 when the premises remained locked and no fault lies on the opposite party in raising the arrears for the period when the premises remained locked.  Moreover the disputed amounts pertains to water supply and sewerage charges as tax as per the provisions of Punjab Municipal Corporation Act and no consumer complaint lies regarding the payment of tax. Reliance in this connection has been placed upon Ram Tirath Vs. The President, Municipal Council, Khanna reported in 2003(1) CPC 546 of the Hon’ble State Commission, Punjab, wherein it has been held that collection of water charges being a tax does not come under the ambit of C.P. Act. As such we found no deficiency in service on the part of the opposite party, rather the amount of arrears of the connection in dispute has been claimed to which the complainant is legally bound to pay to the opposite party.

8.       In view of the aforesaid facts and circumstances of the case, we find no merit in the complaint and the same is hereby dismissed. Keeping in view the peculiar circumstances of the case, the parties are left to bear their own costs. Copies of the order be furnished to the parties free of costs. File is ordered to be consigned to the record room. Case could not be disposed of within the stipulated period due to heavy pendency of the cases in this Forum.

Announced in Open Forum                                  (Charanjit Singh)

Dated: 25.2.2019                                                           President             

                                                (Rachna Arora)             (Anoop Sharma)                                                                Member                     Member