Complainant Jasmitter Singh through the present complaint filed under Section 12 of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 (for short, ‘the Act’) has sought issuance of necessary directions to the titled opposite parties to restore the electricity connection which has been illegally disconnected by the opposite parties and also to pay Rs.50,000/- as damages and to refund Rs.5550/- alongwith interest and the demand of Rs.22,854/- as mentioned above may kindly be deleted, in the interest of justice.
2. The case of the complainant in brief is that he is the actual consumer, holder and owner of domestic electric connection bearing Account No.G/12/DF/381429 H and has been paying the electricity charges to the opposite parties regularly. The opposite parties have disconnected his electric connection about a month ago without any rhyme or reason. The opposite parties prior to disconnecting the said connection did not issue any notice and did not afford any opportunity of being heard to him. He went to the office of opposite party no.3 and enquired about the reason for disconnection the connection in dispute to which they replied that some alleged amount of Rs.1,08,990/- was due and payable by M/s.S.K.Rice Mills Udhanwal, Tehsil Batala, District Gurdaspur and for the said reason the connection had been disconnected. He has further pleaded that he received a bill of Rs.2410/- on 6.11.2013 and also a bill of Rs.3140/- on 8.1.2014 with regard to the connection in dispute and thereafter again received a bill dated 22.12.2014 for Rs.22,854/- with regard to the connection in dispute. However the officials of the opposite party no.3 has stated that the connection stood disconnected since September,2013 in the paper and records of the said opposite parties. The abovesaid bill dated 22.12.2014 for Rs.22,854/- sent by the opposite party to him is also illegal, ultravires, null and void. The opposite party has no right to claim, recover the alleged amount from him without adopting the lawful procedure and envisaged under the law or to disconnect his residential electric connection as the alleged demand from the alleged firm is otherwise barred by time since it allegedly related to the year 2005. They are liable to restore his residential connection in dispute. Hence this complaint.
3. Upon notice, the opposite parties appeared through their counsel and filed the written reply by taking the preliminary objections that the complainant has not been charged anything else than consumption charges and hence the present complaint deserves dismissal on this score alone and previously complaint and civil suit filed by the complainant on the same cause of action has already been dismissed and hence the present complaint being mere an abuse of the process of law deserves to be dismissed with special costs to the tune of Rs.50,000/-. On merits, it was submitted that vide letter no.3706 dated 7.10.2013, the SDO Udhanwal Sub Division intimated to SDO PSPCL East Batala that an amount of Rs.1,08,990/- was outstanding against complainant for his Mill M/s.S.K.Rice Mills Udhanwal, Tehsil Batala, District Gurdaspur, so that amount may be charged to the domestic electricity connection of the complainant bearing Account No.DF38/1429. Previously complaint no.474 of 2004 filed by the complainant on the same ground has been dismissed as withdrawn on 22.2.2005. Thereafter complainant filed a Civil Suit which remained pending in the court of Ms.Rashmi Sharma, Civil Judge, Jr.Div. Batala and the same have also been dismissed in default. Thereafter vide letter no.3668 dated 24.9.2013, the SDO PSPCL Udhanwal asked the complainant to deposit defaulting amount of Rs.1,08,990/- within a period of 7 days from the receipt of this letter, but complainant failed to make payment of the same. After this the SDO, PSPCL Udhanwal intimated the matter to SDO PSPCL East Batala vide memo no.3706 on 7.10.2013 that an amount of Rs.1,08,990/- was outstanding against complainant who was having another Industrial connection for his Mill M/s.S.K.Rice Mills Udhanwal, Tehsil Batala, so this amount may be charged to his domestic connection no.DF-38/1429. After this SDO PSPCL East Batala vide Letter no.1448 dated 20.11.2013 intimated to SDO PSPCL Udhanwal that complainant has failed to deposit defaulting amount of Rs.1,08,990/- and hence his domestic electric connection no.DF38/1429 has been temporarily disconnected. After this, complainant filed another civil suit on the same cause of action at Civil Courts Batala and vide order dated 9.2.2015 the same suit has been dismissed as withdrawn by the court of Ms. Monica Chauhan, Civil Judge, Jr.Div. Batala. Thereafter SDO PSPCL Udhanwal vide memo no.298 dated 19.3.2015 wrote a letter to SDO PSPCL East Batala that civil suit filed by the complainant has been dismissed as withdrawn and accordingly a sum of Rs.1,08,990/- may be recovered from the complainant as per rules. It was next submitted that complainant has already given an affidavit dated 17.11.2013 to opposite party that he has no objection if in future any outstanding amount is recovered from him and charged to his domestic connection no.38/1429. Bill for Rs.2410/- dated 6.11.2013 was consumption bill which complainant failed to deposit with the opposite party and after adding surcharge thereon a sum of Rs.3140/- was worked out. The domestic meter of the complainant was defective and hence a sum of Rs.18,506/- was charged to the complainant on the basis of average charges and hence a sum of Rs.21,646/- was worked out. Since complainant failed to deposit this amount and hence after adding surcharge thereon a sum of Rs.22,854/- was worked out which was rightly reflected in the bill of the complainant dated 22.12.2014. The amount charged from the complainant was legal. All other averments made in the complaint has been vehemently denied and lastly prayed that the complaint may be dismissed with costs.
- Counsel for the complainant has tendered into evidence affidavit of complainant Ex.CW1/A, along with other documents Ex.C1 to Ex.C11 and closed the evidence.
- Counsel for the opposite parties has tendered into evidence affidavit Kasturi Lal S.D.O. PSPCL Ex.OP-1 along with other documents Ex.OP-2 to Ex.Ex.OP12 and closed the evidence.
6. We have carefully examined the available evidence on the records so as to interpret the meaning and purpose of each document and also the scope of adverse inference for of some documents ignored to be produced by the contesting litigants. We find that the present dispute arose as a consequence of disconnection of the complainant’s Domestic Connection # G/12/DF/381429 H (in his personal name) on account of non-payment of Power Bill outstanding in the Industrial Connection A/c # MS18/0006 (in the name of S.K. Rice Mills in which the complainant had been a partner). The OP corporation has stated in its written reply that the complainant’s Domestic Electric Supply (A/c: DF38/1429) at Batala was disconnected at the instance (official letter Ex.OP7) of the SDO, Sub Division, Udhanwal; as the complainant has been a partner in the firm S K Rice Mills and thus was liable to pay the Bill of Rs.1,08,990/- outstanding in the firm’s name at the Udhanwal Sub Div. of the OP service providers. However, the OP corporation has failed to produce the unpaid Bill of Rs.1,08,990/- to establish its pendency (since when outstanding etc.) and/ or the Electricity Supply Rule/Law under which the impugned disconnection was carried out. No doubt, the OP Corporation in its endeavor to justify/legalize its arbitrary act (disconnection sans legal sanctity) has produced other documents to establish its right to recover the outstanding Bill but it need be understood that the legal right shall be enforced through the prescribed procedure established by law and not in an arbitrary manner through coercive means & measures. We have thoroughly examined the OP’s produced documents Ex.OP2 to Ex.OP10 (& Ex.OP12) and find that these may have established the outstanding Bill as due & recoverable but that does not entitle the OP Corporation to have legally entitled the OP to disconnect the domestic supply (of the complainant) at Batala for effecting recovery at Udhanwal from a partnership firm in which the complainant had been a partner. Thus, we hold the OP Corporation to have indulged in ‘unfair trade practice’ exhibited through its demonstrated act of disconnection of the complainant’s domestic supply. Further, the internal audit report Ex.OP11 of 17.10.2014 determines a chargeable additional amount of Rs.18,506/- due to the complainant in his domestic connection from Dec.’ 2012 to Jun’ 2013 on average basis alleging defective Meter but have not produced the requisite Meter Testing Laboratory Report/ affidavit etc to substantiate the allegation. Since this arbitrarily drawn amount of Rs.18,506/- stands admittedly included in Ex.C1 Bill dated 22.12.2014 for Rs.22,470/-; the complainant shall not be liable to pay the same. Moreover, the Bill for Rs.2,410/- of 06.11.2013 alleged/deposed in affidavit Ex.OP1 to have been not-paid stands duly paid vide Ex.C2 Receipt # 28 of 06.11.2013 & the Bill for Rs.3140/- Ex.C3 of 24.12.2013 (including the amount of Bill of 06.11.2013) stands duly paid vide Ex.C4 Receipt # 25 of 08.01.2014. Thus, the present complainant was burdened with arbitrary & translucent Bills that he otherwise was not liable to pay and that entitles him to restoration of electric supply to meet his domestic needs along with cost and compensation under the Act. Thus, we set aside the impugned Bill dated 22.12.2014 for Rs 22,470/- and direct the OP service providers to refund the excess amount, if any, deposited by the complainant in compliance to the various consumption bills.
7. In the light of the all above, we partly allow the present complaint and thus ORDER the Opposite parties to urgently restore the electric supply to the domestic connection of the complainant and to further draw upon him consumption Bills with requisite transparency besides to pay him Rs.3,000/- as compensation and Rs.2,000/- as cost of litigation within 30 days of the receipt of the copy of these orders otherwise the aggregate awarded amount shall attract interest @ 9% PA from the date of the orders till actually paid. The OP Corporation shall however be at liberty to recover the legally recoverable amounts outstanding in the industrial power A/c of the firm S K Rice Mills/S K Enterprises etc but in accordance with the lawful procedure as established in law.
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)
November 13, 2015 Member.
*MK*
