BEFORE DISTRICT CONSUMER DISPUTES REDRESSAL COMMISSION, SIRSA.
Consumer Complaint No. 165 of 2022
Date of Institution: 15.03.2022
Date of Decision: 19.09.2024
Iqbal Singh son of Sh. Chand Singh, resident of Street No.8, Harkrishan Nagar, Desu Road Kalanwali, District Sirsa.
…..Complainant
Versus
- Surender Kumar Lineman, Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam Circle Desu Road, Kalanwali, District Sirsa.
- Ravi, SDO, D.H.B.V.N, Kalanwali, District Sirsa.
- Executive Engineer, DHBVN Circle Mandi Dabwali, District Sirsa.
….. Opposite parties
Complaint U/s 35 of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019.
Before: Sh.Padam Singh Thakur………………..President
Smt.Sukhdeep Kaur………………….…..Member
Sh. Om Parkash Tuteja………………….Member
Present: Complainant in person.
Sh. Yogesh Modi, Advocate for opposite parties.
ORDER
In brief, the case of complainant is that complainant is having domestic electricity connection bearing No. 60-6213 (6150322000) for his residential house and has been paying the electricity bills regularly to the ops and has never been defaulter in this regard in any manner. That on 27.10.2020 he received a letter bearing no. 4193 from op no.2 in which it was mentioned that an amount of Rs.15921/- is outstanding against him and he was stunned to see the said letter as no amount of any bill was pending against him at any time but in the notice it was mentioned that Area Lineman op no.1 and J.E inspected the spot in which it was found that outgoing wire of his meter is going to the house of Sh. Ranjit Singh son of Sh. Jarnail Singh and the wire of meter of said Ranjit Singh is coming to his house so the bill of Ranjit Singh was coming for exaggerated amount and as such he was asked to pay an amount of Rs.15,921/-. It is further averred that after receipt of said notice, he met with ops no.2 and 3 upon which he was assured that his case has been sent to Hisar and same will be disposed off early and he will be given full relief but till today ops have not done anything in the matter except giving assurances to him and interest is being imposed upon said amount and now ops have shown the outstanding amount of Rs.19,000/- against him and matter is being prolonged intentionally by the ops. That ops are trying to recover the said amount unnecessarily and against the rules and if any mistake was found then the electricity department itself was responsible and complainant is not factually liable in this regard. It is further averred that it will be pertinent to mention here that in the said letter it was mentioned that Lineman and JE inspected the spot after visiting the area but at that time neither complainant nor any of his family member was called at the spot and even complainant was also not aware of the above said fact that wires are wrongly going to wrong houses because the employees of the electricity department connects the connections and there was no any malafide intention on the part of complainant. That complainant has not acted anything against the rules of the department and at the time of inspection the complainant should have been called at the spot and his signatures were to be obtained but above said employees of the department have not done so. It is further averred that action of meter checking was being done on the application of Ranjit Singh and there is ill will between them and Ranjeet Singh from last 10 years and above said Lineman has good family relations with Ranjit Singh and they in connivance with each other in order to humiliate the complainant has taken action against him and SDO Ravi was kept under dark in this regard. That complainant and his family members have met them several times for redressal of their grievance but they have not redressed the same after calling other party in their office. It is further averred that said amount of Rs.15,921/- was wrongly imposed upon him which has been increased to Rs.19,000/- and ops are putting pressure upon him to pay the said bill and are threatening to disconnect his connection or to cause heavy loss. That in the month of March, 2021 complainant applied for extension of his load from 1 KW to 3 KW against ID No. T-32-321-263 after paying requisite fee and completing all the formalities and on 16.04.2021 all the formalities were completed but till date his load has not been extended and still load of 1 KW is being shown in the bills and due to said mistake and negligence of ops he is to pay unnecessary expenses and ops are harassing the complainant due to their above said act and conduct. Hence, this complaint.
2. On notice, ops appeared and filed written statement submitting therein that complainant is a defaulter as detailed in the notice challenged by the complainant. That an application was moved by one Ranjeet Singh son of Shri Jarnail Singh, resident of Mandi Kalanwali to the office of the ops that electricity bills in respect of his electricity connections are being received by him for much excess amount that the units consumed by him. On the complaint, the concerned JE and Lineman visited and inspected the spot and found that outgoing wire of the electricity meter of the complainant was going to the house of said Ranjeet Singh whereas the outgoing wire of electricity meter of said Ranjeet Singh was going to the house of the complainant on account of which the electricity bills issued to said Ranjeet Singh were being issued in excess than the actual consumption whereas the electricity bills issued to the complainant were being issued in less than the actual consumption of units. Thus, as per the sale circulars of the Nigam and mandatory provisions of law, a sum of Rs.15,921/- was calculated to be outstanding against the complainant and accordingly the notice no. 4193 dated 27.10.2020 was issued to him, which is legal and lawful. It is further submitted that complainant is under legal obligation to pay the outstanding amount to the Nigam and in case of non payment of the same, the answering ops shall be bound to take legal action against the complainant as per the sale circulars as well as provisions of the Electricity Act and it shall be in discharge of their statutory duties. The complaint in hand has been filed by complainant only in order to escape from his legal liability. It is further submitted that no prior notice is required to be issued to the complainant before inspection of the spot. The notice under challenge has already been issued by the ops to the complainant before affecting the recovery of the disputed amount and thus there is no violation of principle of natural justice in this case. However, the application made by complainant to the Nigam for enhancement of load does not have any affect on the merits of the present case as both are different proceedings. There is no negligence on the part of answering ops rather it is the complainant himself who is on fault and is not discharging his legal liability. Remaining contents of complaint are also denied to be wrong and prayer for dismissal of complaint made.
3. The complainant in evidence has tendered his affidavit Ex. CW1/A and documents Ex.C1 to Ex.C5.
4. On the other hand, ops have tendered affidavit of Sh. Prem Chand, SDO as Ex.R1.
5. We have heard learned counsel for the parties and have gone through the case file.
6. The complainant has placed on file copy of notice bearing no. 4193 dated 27.10.2020 issued by SDO, DHBVN, Kalanwali to the complainant as Ex.C1 vide which he was asked to pay an amount of Rs.15,921/- to the ops on the ground that on checking, it was found that outgoing wire of meter of complainant was going to the house of Ranjeet Singh whereas outgoing wire of meter of said Ranjeet Singh was going to the house of complainant due to which the bills of Ranjeet Singh were being issued for exaggerated amounts. It was also informed to him vide said notice that bills of the account number SK 60 -6289 were being issued to the complainant and bills of the account number SK 60- 6213 were being issued to Ranjeet Singh and on checking of both the accounts, it was found that an amount of Rs.15,921/- is payable by the complainant and as such he was asked to pay this amount within seven days otherwise this amount will be added in his bill. According to the complainant on the basis of said notice, now ops are demanding an amount of Rs.19,000/- from him which is wrong and illegal. We are also convinced with the contentions of complainant. The complainant cannot be compelled to pay any amount other than consumption of units due to any fault of officials of ops or fault of ops themselves. The complainant cannot be asked to pay any amount on the ground that wrong wires of other meter were going to his house and wires of his meter were going to the house of another person and that wrong bill of another account was being issued to him because it is the responsibility of the officials of the ops to ensure correct supply of electricity to the consumers through proper wiring through meter of individual person and to issue correct bills after verifying each and every aspect of correct supply to the person through his own meter and not from any meter of any other person. It cannot be said that alleged issue of wrong wiring was not in the knowledge of officials of the ops or in the notice of meter reader of ops. Rather it can easily be said that if there were wrong wiring to the houses of complainant and said Ranjeet Singh, it cannot be possible without active connivance of officials of the ops. So, the alleged demand of the ops on the above said basis is wrong and illegal and ops have failed to redress the grievances of complainant despite reply to said notice and despite his several requests. As such said demand of ops through notice dated 27.10.2020 is hereby set aside. The ops cannot recover any amount either of Rs.15,921/- or of Rs.19,000/- on the basis of said notice. Further ops have also not extended the load of the meter of complainant despite completion of all the formalities and deposit of necessary fee in this regard and as such there is also deficiency in service on the part of ops in this regard.
7. In view of our above discussion, we allow the present complaint and direct the ops not to effect any recovery on the basis of said notice dated 27.10.2020 and ops will issue bills of the consumption to the complainant after deducting the amount if added in the bills on the basis of said notice. We also direct the ops to extend the load of the meter of complainant. We further direct the ops to further pay a sum of Rs.5,000/- as compensation for harassment and litigation expenses to the complainant within a period of 30 days from the date of receipt of copy of this order. A copy of this order be supplied to the parties as per rules. File be consigned to the record room.
Announced: Member Member President,
Dated: 19.09.2024. District Consumer Disputes
Redressal Commission, Sirsa.
