Order no. 14 dated 24.9.15
Case of the complainant in short is that usually the complainant was charged around Rs.105 /- per month on account of his electricity consumption. But it is alleged by him that for the month of June, 2013 to August 2013 and December, 2013 he received electricity bill of Rs.13,828/- as outstanding bills which he never consumed. In this connection, petitioner served legal notice to the oP for necessary consideration but no action was found to have been favourably taken. Stating the case the complainant ultimately approached before us with the prayer for giving direction to the oP for changing the old faulty meter and install a new one and also for permission to the complainant for payment of arrear electricity charges in the way of easy instalments. For the purpose of this case a bunch of documents viz. copies of electricity bills together with outstanding amounts and Advocate’s notice dated 4.3.2014.
The OP /WBSEDCL , Boinchee C .C. Centre challenged the case by filing W.O. stating therein that the case is not maintainable for want of cause of action and thereby denied the allegation raised by the complainant on the plea of faulty meter which needs to be proved. Unless and until the electric meter is proved to be faulty or defective , the prayer for removal of existing good running meter with a new one cannot be allowed. Thus, the case should be dismissed.
Upon the case of both the Parties the following issues are framed :
ISSUES
Whether the case is maintainable in its present form ?
If the case suffers from want of cause of action ?
Whether the alleged outstanding electricity billsare baseless , illegal or ingenuine ?
If the electricity meter already in the premises of the complainant is defective or faulty in its functioning?
Whether the complainant is entitled to get relief in terms of the prayers made in the petition of complaint ?
DECISION WITH REASONS :
Issues no. 1 to 5 :
All the issues are taken up together for the convenience of discussion and brevity of the case.
No argument in favour of the complainant is found to have made raising the case of alleged incorrect , illegal and baseless electricity bills as raised by the complainant in his petition of complaint. Even though we have carefully considered the evidence so far adduced in support of his claim for alleged faulty and defective electric meter together with documents as per firisti.
Ld. Advocate appearing for the Op on the other hand made his argument that there is no evidence showing that the meter installed in the premises of the complainant is running faulty or producing any error of unit figure. The bills claimed against the complainant are all prepared on the basis of regularly maintained the appropriate register of unit reading based on meter reading. Thus, there is no cause of action for passing order for change of electricity meter as prayed for. In this connection, prayer for payment of outstanding electricity bills may be considered if the Hon’ble Forum thinks so. To conclude the argument , learned Advocate claimed that the Op is not liable for any deficiency of service against the complainant and as such the case should be dismissed.
We have carefully perused the case of both parties and considered the evidence on record and it appears that there is no dependable legal evidence to accept the plea of defective or faulty reading of the electricity meter . That apart, we do not find any cogent evidence in order to arrive at an effective decision for holding that the outstanding bills are incorrect, baseless or illegal as alleged by the complainant.
Under the facts and circumstances it is held and decided that the case filed by the complainant has no cause of action for seeking relief in terms of the prayer made in the petition of complaint. Thus, all the issues are decided against the complainant.
Hence it is ordered
That the case be and the same is dismissed on contest .
Let a copy of this order be made over to the parties free of cost.
