Complainant Baljinder Singh through the present complaint filed under Section 12 of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 (for short, ‘the Act’) has prayed that necessary directions may kindly be issued to the opposite parties to exclude the amount of Rs.16,119/- added as rent of meter and Rs.2106/- added as services charges in the impugned bill and to recover the actual consumption amount from him. Complainant has also claimed Rs.10,000/- as compensation for the mental agony, physical harassment and financial loss caused by the opposite parties to him due to deficient service and unfair trade practice on their part.

2. The case of the complainant in brief is that he had installed an electric connection bearing A/c No.G-33NP-432245A in his name and was using the electricity and paying its bills regularly, nothing was outstanding against him and as such he is consumer of the opposite parties. It was pleaded that complainant has a very small house and his sanctioned and existing load of the connection is .87 K.W. and status of his meter is also 'O' and his average bimonthly bill was about Rs.150/- to Rs.200/-. It was pleaded that complainant was surprised when opposite parties issued him a bill dated 22.06.2016 for Rs.19,030/- which was payable by due date and in this bill opposite parties have added Rs.16,119/- as rent of meter and Rs.2106/- as services charges but opposite parties did not explain any reason that how such like huge amount had been slapped upon him as complainant had paid upto date bills and nothing was outstanding against him. It was further pleaded that bill for 08.01.2016 was Rs.150/-, 08.03.2016 Rs.120/- and 06.05.2016 Rs.80/- paid by the complainant and he never came into arrears. It was also pleaded that on receipt of the illegal bill in question complainant approached the opposite party No.3 and requested him to rectify the bill and receive the actual consumption made by him. Opposite party No.3 called the complainant to his office thrice after a gap of 3-4 days with the assurance that they will do the needful into the matter but after 3 callings opposite party No.3 refused to take any action into the matter, rather humiliated the complainant in the presence of his employee and other persons present in his office and threatened him that they will recover the above said amount from him forcibly by adopting coercive methods if he will not pay the above said amount. It was next pleaded that complainant never used the electricity to this extent and never he came into arrears. Opposite parties did not issue any notice before including the such like huge amount in the bill which was issued to the complainant and no checking was ever made by them and as such amount demanded by the opposite parties was illegal, against the rules and without any basis and liable to be withdrawn and not binding upon the complainant. It was pleaded that there was deficiency in service on the part of the opposite parties who demanded the amount in question in the impugned bill without any checking and notice from the complainant, hence this complaint.

3. Notice of the complaint was served upon the opposite parties who appeared through their counsel and filed the written reply by taking the preliminary objections that complainant filed by the complainant is not maintainable and the complainant had not come to the Hon'ble Forum with clean hands and filed a false, frivolous and vexatious complaint by concealing the true facts and as such complainant is liable to be burdened with special costs as he was fully apprised about the demand of the opposite parties which was legal and genuine one. On merits, It was stated that it was not disputed that opposite parties issued a bill dated 22.06.2016 to the complainant for Rs.19,030/- which was payable by due date. It was denied that in this bill opposite parties had added Rs.16,119/- as rent of meter and Rs.2106/- as services charges and no reasons had been explained as to how such like huge amount had been slapped upon the complainant. It was stated that bill which was issued to the complainant was according to the actual consumption made by him but due to technical defect in the device which prepared the bill in question the figures had been shown up and down on account of which it seems that the amount had been added as rent and services charges whereas the entire amount pertains to actual consumption made by the complainant and he cannot be allowed to take benefit in case there was any technical defect in the device which prepared the disputed bill and as such the demand raised by the opposite parties was legal, genuine and binding upon the complainant. All other averments made in complaint have been denied and lastly prayed for dismissal of the complaint with special costs.

4. Complainant had tendered into evidence his own affidavit Ex.C1. Counsel for the complainant had also tendered other documents Ex.C2 to Ex.C5 and closed the evidence on behalf of complainant.

5. Counsel for the opposite parties had tendered into evidence affidavit of Sh.Kasturi Lal S.D.O. Ex.OP-1 and closed the evidence on behalf of opposite parties.

6. We have heard learned counsel for the parties and have very carefully gone through the affidavits and documents on the file.

7. At the outset without going into the merits of this complaint and from the pleadings and evidence on record we are of this considered view that the present complaint can be best disposed off by giving directions to the opposite parties. Hence the present complaint is disposed off with the directions to the opposite parties to furnish all the details relating to bill dated 22.06.2016 for Rs.19,030/- in which opposite parties have added Rs.16,119/- as rent of meter and Rs.2106/- as services charges. They are also directed to explain the each and every amount claimed/demanded in this bill. Opposite parties will complete the entire exercise within a period of 45 days from the date of receipt of order and in the meanwhile recovery of the impugned amount shall stayed.

8. Copy of the order be communicated to the parties free of charges. After compliance, file be consigned to records.

(Naveen Puri)

                                                                                  President.

ANNOUNCED:                                                 (Jagdeep Kaur)

NOV. 28, 2016                                                               Member.

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