Punjab

Faridkot

CC/19/187

Daljinder Kaur - Complainant(s)

Versus

PSPCL - Opp.Party(s)

Ranjit Singh

04 Mar 2020

ORDER

DISTRICT CONSUMER DISPUTES REDRESSAL FORUM, FARIDKOT

 

                                                    C. C. No :                    187 of 2019

Date of Institution :          05.08.2019

Date of Decision :             04.03.2020

Daljinder Kaur aged about 49 years wife of Partap Singh resident of Street No. 2, Old Cantt Road, Aman Nagar, Faridkot, Tehsil and District Faridkot.                                                                          ...Complainant

Versus

1. Punjab State Power Corporation Ltd. through its Chairman cum Managing Director, The Mall, Patiala.
2. Assistant Executive Engineer, DS City Sub Division, Punjab State Power Corporation Ltd., Faridkot, Tehsil and District Faridkot.            

  .........Ops

Complaint under Section 12 of the

Consumer Protection Act, 1986.

 

Quorum: Sh. Ajit Aggarwal, President,

               Smt. Param Pal Kaur, Member.

 

Present:  Sh Ranjit Singh, Ld Counsel for Complainant,

    Sh Mohan Singh Brar, Ld Counsel for OPs.

 

ORDER

 (Ajit Aggarwal, President)

                                           Complainant has filed the present complaint under Section 12 of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 against Punjab

cc no.- 187 of 2019

State Power Corporation Ltd seeking directions to Ops to withdraw the bill dated 20.07.2019 for Rs.79,703/- in which Rs.78,347/-were charged as sundry charges and for further directing them to pay Rs.50,000/- as compensation for harassment and Rs.20,000/-as litigation expenses.

2                                           Briefly stated, the case of the complainant is that complainant has electric connection bearing account no. 30051550801 with sanctioned load of 0.57 KW and she has been paying all the bills regularly as and when received and nothing is due towards her on account of consumption charges. It is submitted that complainant received bill dated 20.07.2019 for Rs.79,703/- in which Rs.78,347/-were charged as sundry charges without giving any prior notice. On receiving the bill, complainant approached OP-2 and enquired about amount charged, but they failed to give any detail regarding amount charged, but verbally told her that this amount relates to account of some other person, but did not give detail of sundry charges. Complainant made several requests to OPs to withdraw the amount charged as sundry charges, but OPs did not accede to her genuine request, rather threatened to disconnect her connection, if she fails to pay the entire amount in time. All this amounts to deficiency in service on their part and it has caused great inconvenience, harassment and mental tension to him. He has prayed for accepting the present complaint alongwith compensation for harassment and mental agony suffered by her besides litigation expenses. Hence, this complaint.

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3                                                        Counsel for complainant was heard with regard to admission of the complaint and vide order dt 07.08.2019, complaint was admitted and notice was ordered to be issued to the opposite parties.

4                                                On receipt of the notice, the opposite parties filed written statement wherein it is admitted that bill in question is issued by them and it is averred that amount of sundry charges was charged to previous consumer Shushma Rani wife of Satpal who had electric connection bearing no.3000382430, which was disconnected due to defaulting payment of Rs.77,298/-on 3.06.2019. Said connection was installed in same premises where connection of complainant is installed. It is admitted that amount of one connection cannot be charged to another account and therefore, said amount of Rs.78,350/- has been duly withdrawn and charged to original consumer. Grievance of complainant has been fully redressed by them and there is no deficiency in service on their part. Complainant has no cause of action to file the present complaint and prayer for dismissal of complaint is made with costs.

5                                               Parties were given proper opportunities to produce evidence to prove their respective case. Counsel for complainant tendered in evidence affidavit of complainant Ex.C-1 and documents Ex C-2 to 4 and closed the same.

 

cc no.- 187 of 2019

6                                              In order to rebut the evidence of the complainant, the opposite parties tendered in evidence document Ex OP-1 and then, closed the evidence.

7                                                      We have heard the ld counsel for complainant as well as Ops and have carefully gone through the evidence produced on file.

8                                                     From the careful perusal of documents and evidence placed on record and after going through the arguments advanced by respective parties, it is observed that case of the complainant is that complainant is having  electric connection issued by Ops and is the consumer of OPs and she has been paying all the bills regularly as and when received and nothing is due towards her. It is submitted that she received bill dated 20.07.2019 for 20.07.2019 for Rs.79,703/- in which Rs.78,347/-were charged as sundry charges. Grievance of complainant is that despite repeated requests OPs have not withdrawn the amount charged as sundry charges, which amounts to deficiency in service on the part of OPs. On the other hand, in reply, ld counsel for OPs admitted that bill dated 20.07.2019 was issued by them. It is brought before the Forum that said amount was required to charged to one Shushma Rani who was having electric connection at same place where meter of complainant is installed. Sh Gaurav Kakkar, AEE of PSPCL suffered statement alongwith counsel for OPs that amount of Rs.78,350/- charged by them as sundry charges has been withdrawn by

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them vide Sundry Charge & Allowance Register and this amount has been charged to original consumer.

9                          From the careful perusal of evidence, documents placed on record and keeping in view the admittance of opposite parties and in the light of statement suffered by Assistant Executive Engineer of Ops, it is observed that Ops have withdrawn the amount of Rs.78,350/- which was charged by them as sundry charges through bill dated 20.07.2019. Grievance of complainant has been fully redressed and there seems to be no deficiency in service on the part of OPs. Hence, complaint in hand is hereby disposed off accordingly. There are no orders as to costs. Copy of order be supplied to parties free of cost. File be consigned to record room.

Announced in Open Forum

Dated : 4.03.2020

                                        (Param Pal Kaur)                     (Ajit Aggarwal)

            Member                                   President