Complainant Gopal Singh through the present complaint filed under Section 12 of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 (for short, ‘the Act’) has prayed that the present complaint may kindly accepted and opposite parties are directed to charge the bill from him regarding consumption being consumed by him from the electric meter bearing Account No.8399159 and also to charge consumption charges from Gurpal Singh for the consumption shown by the meter installed in his house which was originally issued in his name and to withdraw their illegal threat to recover the alleged amount regarding the alleged consumption charges of the electric meter installed in the house of Gurpal Singh. Complainant has also claimed compensation for the loss suffered by him from the hands of the opposite parties along with litigation expenses, all in the interest of justice.
2. The case of the complainant in brief is that he had constructed a new house at village Tatley and for getting the electricity he had applied for domestic electric connection in his said residential house which was released by the opposite parties in his favour and installed electric meter in the premises of the complainant vide Meter Serial No.8399159 and Account No.KW-82/1826 in the month of July, 2015. It was pleaded that after the month of September 2015, complainant had gone to village Raj Pura and the said house where electric meter was installed remained locked and occasionally father of the complainant had opened the house and two bulbs just once in a week and as such complainant had consumed 274 units from the above said electric connection. It was pleaded that there was one another person namely Gurpal Singh son of Sh.Shingara Singh of the same village and said Gurpal Singh had also applied for getting domestic electric connection and opposite parties had released the domestic electric connection in his favour on the same time when electric connection was released in favour of the complainant. It was further pleaded that electric meter bearing No.8399159 which was installed by the opposite parties in the house of the complainant had been issued at the name of Gurpal Singh as per record of the opposite parties but the opposite parties with malafide intention had installed the same in the house of the complainant and the same case had been done in another case, where the electric meter issued at the name of the complainant had been installed in the house of said Gurpal Singh. It was also pleaded that when opposite parties came to know about their mistake on 11.2.2016, the employees of the opposite parties visited the house of the complainant and asked him that they are going to remove the said electric meter and will install the electric meter which had been affixed in the house of Gurpal Singh and the said meter which had been installed in the house of Gurpal Singh would be affixed in the house of the complainant but on the other hand said Gurpal Singh consumed very excessive and high consumption from the said electric meter and if opposite parties will succeed in doing so then complainant will suffer irreparable loss and injury without having any fault on his part. It was next pleaded that complainant had requested the opposite parties that if they wants to clarify their mistake then they will charge the bill from him regarding the consumption being consumed by him from the electric meter bearing Account No.8399159 and also to charge consumption charges from Gurpal Singh for the consumption showing by the meter installed in his house which was originally issued in the name of the complainant but the opposite parties refused to admit his claim and threatened to recover charges from him of the electric meter which was installed in the house of Gurpal Singh. It was pleaded that due to the illegal act and conduct of the opposite parties complainant had suffered great loss and also suffered mental harassment and as such there is clear cut deficiency on the part of the opposite parties, hence this complaint.
- Notice of the complaint was served upon the opposite parties who appeared through their counsel and filed the written reply by taking the preliminary objection that complainant had not come to the Court with clean hands and he was guilty of suppression of material and vital facts from this Hon’ble Forum. On merits, it was stated that a new domestic connection bearing Account No.KW-82/1816 was installed in the name of the complainant and the sanctioned load was 1.940 K.W. and meter of this connection bearing No.8399159 was installed. It was denied that the Account no. of the complainant was KW-82/1826. It was stated that another connection was also installed in the name of Gurpal Singh bearing Account No.KW-82/1826 and a meter being Account No.8399179 was installed on that connection and as per record meter bearing No.8399179 was issued to the connection bearing Account No.KW-82/1816 of complainant Gopal Singh and another meter bearing serial Number 8399159 to the other connection bearing Account No.KW-82/126. It was further stated that due to mistake both the meters were installed with the connection of each other’s account number which were running since its installation and when this fact came to the knowledge of opposite party no.1 they filled up the Advice No.73 and sent to the Computer Cell for the regularization of the meters as installed. It was also stated that both the meters will not be exchanged with each other as both the meters will continue functioning and consumers would make the payment of the cost of electricity consumed by them and they had not paid each other’s consumption. It was next stated that the above said mistake had taken place because both the consumers resides in the same village Tatley and their names sound the same i.e. complainant Gopal Singh and Gurpal Singh. It was stated that neither the meter installed in the house of complainant had been removed nor the same will be removed in order to exchange the same with the meter of Gurpal Singh’s connection. It was also stated by the opposite parties that a vague and baseless prayer advanced by the complainant as meter bearing No.8399159 installed in the house of the complainant and the same had been regularized and he is paying the consumption charges of electricity consumed through that meter All other averments made in the complaint have denied and lastly prayed for dismissal of the complaint.
4. Complainant had tendered into evidence his own affidavit Ex.CW1 along with document Ex.C1 and closed his evidence.
5. Counsel for the opposite parties had tendered into evidence affidavit of Er.Gurwinderjit Singh Sandhu SDO Ex.OP-1 along with documents Ex.OP-2 to Ex.OP-4 and closed the evidence on behalf of opposite parties.
6. We have carefully examined the documents/evidence produced on record along with that ignored to be produced to support/prove their respective ‘claims’ as duly pleaded by the present litigants in the light of the arguments as put forth by the learned counsels, while adjudicating the present complaint. We find the present complaint prompted on account of the inadvertent exchange of the electric Meter issued to the present complainant with that of another consumer Gurpal Singh who, somehow (though incidentally) was also issued the electricity connection on the same day. It is not understood as to how both the present litigants have somehow ignored to produce the date of release of connection (inadvertent exchange of Electric Meters) and its subsequent detection/correction i.e., the period of non-detection (continuance of the wrong) perhaps to cover other wrongs/lapse.
7. The date on the OP produced copy (Ex.OP2) of the advice for correction of Meter particulars does not exhibit the ‘legible’ date of its issuance. The orders (Ex.OP3) pertaining to the release of connection are dated 09.04.2015 whereas the copy of the Ledger (Ex.OP4) exhibiting the particulars of since ‘corrected’ Meter particulars pertain to the month of January’ 2016 and that indicates that the ‘discrepancy’ continued undetected for more than ‘8’ months. The OP service providers have stated/deposed that ‘No Consumption Bills’ were drawn during the intervening period and thus no monetary loss has incurred to ‘2’ related consumers. Ironically, the statement can be conveniently taken as an admission of the practiced ‘deficiency in service’. Another exhibit of the continuing ‘deficiency in service’ has been the ‘non-intimation’ of the affected correction to the present complainant consumers. It is true that no monetary loss has incurred to the present complainant and going by the maxim: ‘No one should get unduly enriched through litigation’; we are not inclined to award a handsome compensation to the complainant.
8. In the light of the all above, we partly allow the present complaint and ORDER the titled opposite parties to intimate in writing the affected correction of the effected Energy Meters besides to pay him Rs.5,000/- as cost and compensation for having caused him un-necessary harassment within 30 days of the receipt of the copy of these orders otherwise the awarded amount shall attract interest @ 9% PA from the date of the orders till actually paid.
- 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)
JUNE, 27, 2016 Member.
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