Before the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, Room No. 208 2nd Floor, District Administrative Complex, Tarn Taran
Consumer Complaint No : 31 of 2019
Date of Institution : 15.05.2019
Date of Decision : 27.01.2020
Harmanjit Singh son of Nirbhey Singh, resident of village Durgapur Garbi Tehsil and District Tarn Taran.
......Complainant
Versus
SDO Punjab State Powers Corporation Ltd. Sub Division NaushehraPannuan Tehsil and District Tarn Taran.
.....Opposite Party.
Complaint Under Section 12 and 13 of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986.
Quorum: Sh. Charanjit Singh, President
Smt. JaswinderKaur, Member
For Complainant Sh. AnkushSood Advocate
For Opposite Party Sh. K.M. Gupta Advocate
ORDERS:
Charanjit Singh, President;
1 The complainant Harmanjit Singh has filed the present complaint under Section 12 and 13 of the Consumer Protection Act against the opposite party on the allegations that he is having one domestic electricity connection having account No. T62JD431064M installed at his house at village Durgapur Tehsil and District Tarn Taran and as such, the complainant is consumer of opposite party and had been regularly paying the electricity bills for the electricity consumed by him at his house. The complainant is getting concession on the consumption of the electricity units for his domestic use of electricity as per the rules and regulations of the State Govt. Even earlier in electricity bills which he was getting from the electricity department, it had been written ‘Concession by Government’ in the electricity bills. In the month of September 2018, the complainant was shocked to see when the complainant received electricity amount for a sum of Rs. 28,907/- which is an exorbitant. The complainant belongs to Schedule Class category, as such he is not liable to pay the electricity charges to the opposite party, which the complainant has got no right, legality to do so. Moreover, the complainant visited the office of opposite party many times regarding his electricity bill but the opposite party lingered on the matter on one false pretext or the other. The complainant is not using any heavy electricity appliance in his residential house. Due to threat and inducement by the opposite party, the complainant paid Rs. 5,000/- as a part payment against the above said bill and requested to the opposite party not to disconnect the electricity connection. Repeatedly, in the month of November 2018, January, March 2019, the complainant received a bill for an amount of Rs. 24.776/-, Rs. 25,260 and Rs. 26,130/- from the opposite party which is a huge amount for the complainant and the complainant belongs to poor family and he did not have any heavy appliances/ gadget installed at his house. Again every time, the complainant visited the office of opposite party regarding his electricity bill but the opposite party did not pay any heed to the genuine request of the complainant and this time they flatly refused to accept the request of the complainant. On inquiry about the huge electricity bill the opposite party verbally replied that they are imposing/ adding the electricity bill to the complainant of Arjan Singh son of Chanan Singh resident of village Durgapur Tehsil and District Tarn Taran as he had not paid his electricity bills and his electricity connection was disconnected by opposite party. The present complainant is having separate electricity connection at his own house and he is paying all the electricity bills but the opposite party wants to recover illegally the amount of said Arjan Singh who has already died on 13.2.2014 and the same is illegal, arbitrary and is not sustainable in the eyes of law. In the month of March 2019 the complainant was astonished when the opposite party without any giving prior notice to the complainant disconnected the electricity meter of complainant as the complainant requested to the opposite party not to do so but inspite of his request, the opposite party disconnected the same without giving any plausible reason. On 20.3.2019 the complainant made a representation to the Deputy Commissioner Tarn Taran for granting concession of his electricity bills, But the opposite party did not take any action regarding the illegal bill which was delivered to the complainant. The opposite party through its representatives is giving threats to the complainant to disconnect the electricity supply of the complainant which is actually threat given by the opposite party to the complainant to recover the illegal amount which they have got no legal right to do so. The complainant has prayed that the opposite parties be directed to quash/ set aside the bills and to issue fresh bill to the complainant. The complainant has also prayed Rs. 20,000/- as compensation and Rs. 15,000/- as litigation expenses. Alongwith the present complaint, the complainant has placed on record documents i.e. affidavit of complainant Ex. C-1, copy of Scheduled Caste Certificate Ex. C-2, Death Certificate of Arjan Singh Ex. C-3, Photostat copies of the bills Ex. C-4 to Ex. C-6, Photostat copy of payment receipt Ex. C-7, Application to D.C. Ex. C-8.
2 After formal admission of the complaint, notice was issued to Opposite Party and opposite party appeared through counsel and filed written version contesting the complaint by taking preliminary objections that PSPCL is the distributing licensee for supply of power in the state of Punjab and PSPCL is supplying energy to its consumer and the consumption bills are also issued by PSPCL and the payment is made of the said bills in favour of PSPCL. PSPCL is necessary and proper party for claiming any relief and the complaint against the SDO alone is not maintainable, unless and until the complaint is filed against PSPCL. The complainant has got meter installed in the premises owned by the grandfather of the complainant where earlier meter was got installed by the grandfather of the complainant and an amount of Rs. 22,763/- was outstanding in the said account. The complainant has taken possession of the said house and got the earlier meter in the name of his grandfather disconnected and got installed a new meter in his own name in the same house and he is therefore, liable for making payment of the said defaulting amount of earlier owner of the house. On merits, it was pleaded that The SC certificate got issued by the complainant is dated 3.5.2019. The complainant may be a consumer in General Category. As admitted by the complainant that he has paid Rs. 5,000/- as part payment of amount of bill received for Rs. 28,907/- and has thus accepted his liability to pay the bill and has also thereby accepted the correctness of the bill. The connection of complainant was disconnected in March 2019 and was not a consumer of opposite party on the date of filing of the complaint and therefore, the complaint is liable to be dismissed on this very ground. The opposite party has denied the other contents of the complaint and prayed for dismissal of the complaint. Alongwith the written version, the opposite party has placed on record affidavit of SDO PSPCL NaushehraPannuan Ex. OP1/A.
3 The complainant has filed rejoinder to the written version filed by the opposite party and reiterated the stand as taken in the complaint.
4 We have heard the Ld. counsel for the parties have gone through the record placed on the file by both the parties.
5 Ld. counsel for the complainant contended that the complainant is consumer of opposite party and had been regularly paying the electricity bills for the electricity consumed by him at his house. The complainant is getting concession on the consumption of the electricity units for his domestic use of electricity as per the rules and regulations of the State Govt. He further contended that even earlier in electricity bills which he was getting from the electricity department, it had been written ‘Concession by Government’ in the electricity bills. In the month of September 2018, the complainant was shocked to see when the complainant received electricity amount for a sum of Rs. 28,907/- which is an exorbitant. The complainant belongs to Schedule Class Category, as such, he is not liable to pay the electricity charges to the opposite party, which the complainant has got no right, legality to do so. He further contended that the complainant visited the office of opposite party many times regarding his electricity bill but the opposite party lingered on the matter on one false pretext or the other. The complainant is not using any heavy electricity appliance in his residential house. Due to threat and inducement by the opposite party, the complainant paid Rs. 5,000/- as a part payment against the above said bill and requested to the opposite party not to disconnect the electricity connection. He further contended that in the month of November 2018, January, March 2019, the complainant received a bill for an amount of Rs. 24.776/-, Rs. 25,260 and Rs. 26,130/- from the opposite party which is a huge amount for the complainant and the complainant belongs to poor family and he did not have any heavy appliances/ gadget installed at his house. He further contended that on inquiry, the opposite party verbally replied that they are imposing/ adding the electricity bill to the complainant of Arjan Singh son of Chanan Singh resident of village Durgapur Tehsil and District Tarn Taran as he had not paid his electricity bills and his electricity connection was disconnected by opposite party. The present complainant is having separate electricity connection at his own house and he is paying all the electricity bills but the opposite party wants to recover illegally the amount of said Arjan Singh who has already died on 13.2.2014 and the same is illegal, arbitrary and is not sustainable in the eyes of law. He further contended that in the month of March 2019, the complainant was astonished when the opposite party without any giving prior notice to the complainant disconnected the electricity meter of complainant. On 20.3.2019 the complainant made a representation to the Deputy Commissioner Tarn Taran for granting concession of his electricity bills, But the opposite party did not take any action regarding the illegal bill which was delivered to the complainant. the complainant prayed that the present complaint may be allowed.
6 Ld. counsel for the opposite party contended that PSPCL is the distributing licensee for supply of power in the state of Punjab and PSPCL is supplying energy to its consumer and the consumption bills are also issued by PSPCL and the payment is made of the said bills in favour of PSPCL. PSPCL is necessary and proper party for claiming any relief and the complaint against the SDO alone is not maintainable, unless and until the complaint is filed against PSPCL. The complainant has got meter installed in the premises owned by the grandfather of the complainant where earlier meter was got installed by the grandfather of the complainant and an amount of Rs. 22,763/- was outstanding in the said account. He further contended that the complainant has taken possession of the said house and got the earlier meter in the name of his grandfather disconnected and got installed a new meter in his own name in the same house and he is therefore, liable for making payment of the said defaulting amount of earlier owner of the house. The SC certificate got issued by the complainant is dated 3.5.2019. The complainant may be a consumer in General Category. As admitted by the complainant that he has paid Rs. 5,000/- as part payment of amount of bill received for Rs. 28,907/- and has thus accepted his liability to pay the bill and has also thereby accepted the correctness of the bill. He further contended that the connection of complainant was disconnected in March 2019 and was not a consumer of opposite party on the date of filing of the complaint and therefore, the complaint is liable to be dismissed on this very ground.
7 The case of the opposite party is that the complainant has got meter installed in the premises owned by the grandfather of the complainant where earlier meter was got installed by the grandfather of the complainant and an amount of Rs. 22,763/- was outstanding in the said account and the complainant has taken possession of the said house and got the earlier meter in the name of his grandfather disconnected and got installed a new meter in his own name in the same house and he is therefore, liable for making payment of the said defaulting amount of earlier owner of the house.The complainant is having domestic electricity connection bearing account No.T62JD431064M whereas grandfather of the complainant is having different electricity connection. The arrears of that account of grandfather of complainant have been added in the new account of the complainant bearing account No.T62JD431064M. If the complainant was allotted new connection, then it was the duty of the Opposite party at the time of issuing new electricity connection to ensure that no arrears were outstanding against the previous consumer of the same premises. Assuming if grandfather of complainant was in arrears then it was for the Opposite Party to effect the recovery through any lawful way as prescribed under the rules. It is settled proposition of the law that any amount outstanding against one electricity connection cannot be added in the bill of another connection. We are strengthened by the view expressed in case Punjab State Electricity Board Vs. GurjitKaur 2004(1) CLT-622. On the other hand, no rule, regulation/ instructions or law has been shown by the ld.counsel for the Opposite Party that the arrears of other consumer could be added in the bill of another consumer. We are of the view that by use of such type of the tactics of unfair trade practice amounts to put the consumer in embarrassing position.
8 In view of above discussion, this Forum is of the view that the instant complaint has merits and the same is accepted. The demand of arrears of Rs.22,763/- from the complainant is hereby set aside. The Opposite Party is directed to issue the fresh bill to the complainant on the basis of actual consumption excluding the aforementioned amount of arrears and correct its record accordingly. The amount, if any, deposited by the complainant out of the above said amount be adjusted in the next bills of the complainant.The complainant has been harassed by the opposite party. The complainant is also entitled to Rs. 5,000/- ( Rs. Five Thousand only) as compensation on account of harassment and mental agony and Rs3,500/- (Rs. Three Thousand and Five Hundred only) as litigation expenses. Opposite party is directed to comply with the order within one month from the date of receipt of copy of the order, failing which the complainant is entitled to interest @ 9% per annum, on the awarded amount, from the date of complaint till its realisation. Copy of order be supplied to the parties free of costs as per rules. File be consigned to record room.
