Punjab

Faridkot

CC/19/203

Gurlal Singh - Complainant(s)

Versus

PSPCL - Opp.Party(s)

Ranjit Singh

25 Jul 2022

ORDER

DISTRICT CONSUMER DISPUTES REDRESSAL COMMISSION, FARIDKOT

                                                               

            C. C. No :                      203 of 2019

           Date of Institution :       16.08.2019

                      Date of Decision :         25.07.2022

Gurlal Singh aged about 19 years s/o Swaran Singh, r/o village Chand Bhan, Tehsil Jaitu District Faridkot.

                                                             ...Complainant

Versus

1. Punjab State Power Corporation Ltd., through its Chairman cum Managing Director, The Mall, Patiala.
2. Assistant Engineer, DS Sub Division, Punjab State Power Corporation Ltd., Jaitu.

   .........Ops

Complaint under Section 12 of the

Consumer Protection Act, 1986.

 

Quorum: Sh Kanwar Sandeep Singh, President,

                Smt. Param Pal Kaur, Member,

                Sh Vishav Kant Garg,Member.

 

Present:  Sh Ranjeet Singh, Ld Counsel for complainant,

    Sh Mohan Singh Brar, Ld Counsel for OPs.

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ORDER

(Kanwar Sandeep Singh, President)

                                            Complainant Gurlal Singh (hereinafter referred to as complainant)  has filed this complaint under section 12 of the Consumer Protection Act (hereinafter referred as ‘Act’ before this Commission against Punjab State Power Corporation (hereinafter referred as OPs).

2                                          Briefly stated, the case of the complainant is that complainant applied for tubewell connection of 10BHP at village Chand Bhan under Chairman Priority Quota Scheme of OPs and vide memo no. 44785/ Approved / S-5/167/Jaito dated 21.12.2016, connection was ordered to be released to complainant under Chairman’s Discretionary Quota on priority basis subject to completion of requisite formalities. As per demand note dated 29.12.2016, complainant deposited security charges of Rs.2.100/-and service connection charges of Rs.20,000/- alongwith other documents with OPs on 29.12.2016.

3                                       It is alleged that despite deposit of requisite fee, submission of all requisite documents and even after completion

 

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of all required formalities, OPs have not released tube well connection to complainant. Complainant made repeated requests to OPs to release the tubewell connection, but all in vain which amounts to deficiency in service on the part of OPs and this act and conduct of Ops has caused great inconvenience, harassment and mental tension to complainant.

4                                          On this backdrop of facts, the complainant has prayed seeking directions to Ops to release the tube well connection and for further directing them to pay Rs.50,000/- as compensation for harassment and mental agony suffered by complainant besides litigation expenses of Rs.10,000/-.

5                                              Upon receipt of the notice, the opposite parties filed written statement taking preliminary objections that complainant has no cause of action to file the present complaint. It is pleaded that after declaration of election schedule for Assembly Elections, 2017 in Punjab by Election Commission of India, the Government of Punjab vide letter dated 11.01.2017 issued directions to maintain status quo for release of tubewell connections under

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Chairman Discretionary Quota. PSPCL issued policy vide commercial circular no.20/2018, but till date above mentioned ban or status quo has not been removed by State Government or PSPCL for release of tubewell connection under Chairman Discretionary Quota.  However, on merits, OPs averred that there is no deficiency in service on their part and reiterated the same pleadings as taken by them in preliminary objections. It is admitted that before releasing the connection, demand note is issued for compliance of rules and regulations of PSPCL, but vide D.O. No.1/33 dated 11.01.2017, Punjab Government issued directions to maintain status quo till further orders with respect to all the applicants of tubewell connections and thereafter, PSPCL vide commercial circular no.20/2018 and memo no.177/181/SSM-414/AP Policy/L dated 13.05.2018 gave directions that no fresh notices are to be issued for time being to eligible applicants as per present cut off dates under any general or priority categories. Instruction regarding extending the validity period of the sanction letters already issued under Chairmanship Discretionary Quota shall be issued later on. It is further averred that neither Punjab Government nor PSPCL has

 

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issued directions to release the connection issued under Chairman Priority Category and connections would be released on receipt of instructions and releasing the connection under Chairman Quota is a policy matter of PSPCL. Ops have denied all the allegations of complainant being wrong and incorrect and asserted that PSPCL is working under the guidelines issued by government from time to time and there is no deficiency in service on their part. Prayer for dismissal of complaint with costs is made.

6                                    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 6 and closed the same.

7                                    In order to rebut the evidence of the complainant, the opposite parties tendered in evidence affidavit of  Rajinder Singh A.E. Jaitu Sub Division PSPCL, Jaitu as Ex OP-1 and documents Ex OP-2 to OP-10 and closed the evidence.

8                                     We have heard the ld counsel for complainant as well OPs and have carefully perused the record

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available on file and written arguments submitted by OPs. Ld counsel for parties reiterated their stand as taken in their respective pleadings.

9                                                From the careful perusal of record and evidence produced by respective parties, it is observed that case of complainant is that he was got sanctioned electrical tubewell connection under Chairman quota vide memo no.44785  dt 21.12.2016. He immediately completed all the formalities as asked by OPs and deposited security charges of Rs.2100/-and service connection charges of Rs.20,000/-as per demand of OPs on 29.12.2016 alongwith documents to OPs, but till date they have not released tubewell connection to him. It is alleged that on the ground that code of conduct was imposed they refused to release the tube well connection to him. Grievance of complainant is that despite several requests, OPs did not release connection under Chairman quota to complainant, which amounts to deficiency in service on their part. He has prayed for accepting the present complaint.

10                                                 In reply, Ops stressed mainly on the point that before releasing the connection, demand note is issued for compliance of rules and regulations of PSPCL, but after declaration of election schedule for

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Assembly Elections, 2017 in Punjab by Election Commission of India, the Government of Punjab vide letter dated 11.01.2017 issued directions to maintain status quo for release of tubewell connections under Chairman Discretionary Quota. PSPCL issued policy vide commercial circular no.20/2018, but till date above mentioned ban or status quo has not been removed by State Government or PSPCL for release of tubewell connection under Chairman Discretionary Quota and thereafter, PSPCL vide commercial circular no.20/2018 and memo no.177/181/SSM-414/AP Policy/L dated 13.05.2018 gave directions that no fresh notices are to be issued for time being to eligible applicants as per present cut off dates under any general or priority categories. Instruction regarding extending the validity period of the sanction letters already issued under Chairmanship Discretionary Quota shall be issued later on. It is further averred that neither Punjab Government nor PSPCL has issued directions to release the connection issued under Chairman Priority Category and connections would be released on receipt of instructions and releasing the connection under Chairman Quota is a policy matter of PSPCL. Ops argued that there is no deficiency in service on their part and prayed for dismissal of complaint.

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11                                                Complainant has relied upon document Ex C-2 which is copy of letter dt 21.12.2016 vide which tubewell connection under said Chairman quota was sanctioned to him. Through Ex C-1 affidavit of complainant, he has reiterated his pleadings. Ex C-3 is demand note dated 29.12.2016 released by OPs for deposit of Rs.20,000/- and Ex C-4 is copy of demand note wherein complainant is asked to deposit security charges of Rs.2,100/-with them and Ex C-5 and Ex C-6 are copies of receipts dated 29.12.2016 that justifies and proves the pleadings of complainant that in compliance of demand note dated 29.12.2016 issued by OPs, he deposited Rs.20,000/-as service connection charges and Rs.2,100/-as security charges with them on same day i.e 29.12.2016. These receipts show that complainant deposited requisite fees with Ops for obtaining tubewell connection as asked by OPs. Complainant submitted all the relevant documents complete in all respects to OPs but OPs refused to release tubewell connection on the ground that code of conduct has been imposed. It is observed that complainant submitted the documents well within the prescribed time. Due to imposition of code of conduct, no new project can be implemented but thereafter, it was the duty of OPs to release tubewell connection under Chairman quota. The Ld Counsel for OPs further argued that after declaration of election schedule for Assembly

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Elections, 2017 in Punjab by Election Commission of India, the Government of Punjab vide letter dated 11.01.2017 issued directions to maintain status quo for release of tubewell connections under Chairman Discretionary Quota. PSPCL issued policy vide commercial circular no.20/2018, but till date above mentioned ban or status quo has not been removed by State Government or PSPCL for release of tubewell connection under Chairman Discretionary Quota and thereafter, PSPCL, vide commercial circular dated 13.04.2018 gave directions that no fresh demand note be issued to the applicants for release of tube well connection. As such, as per letter of PSPCL, the OPs have not released tube well connection to complainant. The OPs have placed on record copy of letter dated 11.01.2017 as Ex OP-4 and commercial circular dated 13.04.2018 as Ex OP-6. As per Ex OP-5,  the PSPCL gave directions to not to issue fresh demand notice against general category or any priority category for AP connections and to release tubewell connection but in the present case, the OPs have already sanctioned or approved the tubewell connection under Chairman Priority Quota to complainant on 29.12.2016 and against this demand of OPs, the complainant has already deposited the amount of Rs.22,100/- on same day i.e 29.12.2016,  which is much prior to imposing status quo by the Government of Punjab on 11.01.2017 and commercial circular dated

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13.04.2018. Now, on the basis of plea of these orders of status quo or directions to not to issue fresh demand notice, the OPs cannot withhold the tubewell connection of the complainant with retrospective effect.  Moreover, sanction and process of release of tubewell connection to complainant was started in December, 2016 i.e well before the imposition of model code of conduct, so said memo has no relevancy with the present case as tubewell connection to complainant was already sanctioned in year 2016 and this memo cannot operate retrospectively. Further as per condition no.8 of document press note of office of Chief Electoral Officer, Punjab Ex OP-3, the model code of conduct had come into force from the date of announcement of election (from 04.01.2017) by the Election Commission of India and remained in force till the completion of election process and this document itself reveals that 15.03.2017 was the date before which the election process was completed. The OPs on one hand got applied tubewell connection under Chairman Quota on priority basis from the complainant in the year 2016 and got deposited Rs.22,100/-from him in the year 2016 and on the other hand, act and conduct of the OPs is altogether different. If connection is not being given by the OPs, despite getting it applied under Chairman Discretionary Quota on priority basis scheme, then, the salient

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features of the scheme i.e., Discretionary Quota and Priority Basis would lose significance and the very purpose of said scheme will be frustrated. OPs have already approved release of tubewell connection to complainant and now they cannot deny it. Moreover, it is not the case of OPs that they have not released connections thereafter. So, this Commission is of the view that complainant should not be left to wait for indefinite period. Therefore, there is clear cut deficiency in service on the part of OPs in not releasing tubewell connection under Chairman Discretionary Quota to complainant.

12                                         In view of the above discussion, aforesaid facts and circumstances, the complaint filed by the complainant is partly allowed with Rs.10,000/-as compensation and litigation expenses against OPs.  OPs are directed to issue tubewell connection to complainant

13                                                     Compliance of this order be made within one month of receipt of the copy of the order. It is made clear that complainant shall be liable to deposit charges and to complete the formalities if any, legally required.

 

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14                                                    The complaint could not be decided within statutory period due to covid pandemic  and heavy pendency of cases.

15                                              Copy of this order be supplied to parties free of cost as per law. File be consigned to record room.

Announced in Commission

Dated : 25.07.2022

 

           (Vishav Kant Garg)     (Param Pal Kaur)  (Kanwar Sandeep Singh)

           Member                        Member                           President