1. The grievance of the complainant is that he is a consumer of the Opposite Parties vide consumer No. 713101480009 and he was regularly paying the Electricity bills to the O.Ps till March, 2014. But surprisingly during October, 2014 he has received an exaggerated bill demanding a sum of Rs. 24,759/- charging 4802 units relating to 4 month which is extremely high in compare to previous consumption and such demand by the O.Ps are without any reason and thus exaggeration has caused him financial loss, mental agony and physical harassment. Hence he has approached this forum for the protection and relief as per his prayer.
2. Despite receipt of notice, the Opposite Parties neither appeared nor filed their written version hence, Opposite Parties are set ex-parte.
3. In the absence of any representation from the side of Opposite Parties and having gone through the documents placed before us by the Complainant, We are of the considered opinion that due to fault on the part of the Opposite Parties, they remained silent without rebutting the allegation of the complainant in this case.
4. We come across a decision of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in the matter of Vidya Dhar-versus-Munkif Rao and another reported in 1992(2) Civil Court Cases at page-91 held that “ if a party did not adduce any evidence in rebuttal, then adverse inference should drawn against the party for not rebutting the evidence”.
5. We are fortified by a decision of the Hon’ble High Court of Jammu & Kashmir in the matter of Fiat India Pvt. Ltd. Versus Dr. Zahid Hussain Gillari and others reported in 2003 CTJ 953 (CP) wherein the Hon’ble High Court held that “is is well settled that where the averments made in the complaint are un-rebutted, the presumption is that the averments are true and correct”.
6. Keeping in view the above referred case laws, which are applicable on the facts and circumstances of the case, we have come to the conclusion that complaint is tenable. We find that the Opposite Party No- 1&2 are deficient in this case for which the complainant is entitled to an appropriate order in terms of Section 14 of the C.P. Act. Hence, we proceed to pass the following order. Hence it is ORDERED :
ORDER
The bill of October -2014 issued against the complainant be quashed. The opposite parties are directed to issue proper bill after fixing a new and perfect meter, after observing three months consumption, fix average monthly consumption for entire disputed period, deduct the total payments made by the complainant from the total amounts and the complainant is to pay the said revised amount after its receipt on installment basis. The Forum also ordered the O.Ps to pay Rs. 2,000/- to the complainant towards compensation for mental agony and Rs. 1000/- as cost of the case within 30 days from the date of the order.
The complaint petition allowed.
Copy of the order be communicated to the parties as per rules.
Delivered in open forum on this the 30th September,2015.
