Fahmida Khatoon @ Famida Khatun v. The South Bihar Power Distribution Company Ltd.

IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA

Civil Writ Jurisdiction Case No.6327 of 2023 ====================================================== Fahmida Khatoon @ Famida Khatun Wife of Md. Akhtar Hussain Resident of Tatarpur, Police Station-Tatarpur, District-Bhagalpur. ... ... Petitioner

Versus

1.

The South Bihar Power Distribution Company Ltd. (Formerly Bihar State Electricity Board), Bihar Patna through its Chairman. 2.

Bhagalpur Electricity Distribution Company Pvt. Ltd. through Manager Commercial Kharman Chak, Bhagalpur,.

3.

Electrical Executive Engineer, Electric Supply Division, Bhagalpur (Township) 4.

Assistant Electrical Engineer, Electric Supply Sub-Division, Mojahidpur, Bhagalpur.

... ... Respondents ====================================================== Appearance :

For the Petitioner/s :

Mr.Dr. Manoj Kumar, Advocate For the Respondent/s :

Mr.Vinay Kirti Singh, Sr. Advocate ====================================================== CORAM: HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE RAJEEV RANJAN PRASAD ORAL ORDER 08-05-2023 Heard learned counsel for the petitioner and learned senior counsel for the South Bihar Power Distribution Company Limited.

Petitioner, in this case, is aggrieved by and dissatisfied with the wrong energy bill for a sum of Rs. 4,04,131/-. It is the case of the petitioner that he deposited Rs. 50,000/- against the said bill on 14.03.2013 and thereafter represented on several occasions to the respondent authorities to correct the bill but it has not yielded any result. It is stated that instead of correcting the energy bill, the respondents sent energy bill to the tune of Rs. 9,42,175/- and

Patna High Court CWJC No.6327 of 2023(2) dt.08-05-2023 2/3 on an objection raised by the petitioner, the authorities reduced the bill to Rs. 4,02,883/- in the month of January 2014. The petitioner submits that he filed a complaint case bearing no. 164/2018 before the learned Consumer Grievance Redressal Forum, Bhagalpur where after hearing at length the learned Forum passed an order on 08.08.2019 as contained in Annexure '2' to the writ application. It is submitted that despite direction of the Consumer Forum the bill of the petitioner has not been corrected.

Learned counsel submits that the petitioner is a cancer patient and finding no alternative, he has moved this Court in this writ application.

It is submitted that recently vide order dated 05.11.2022, the learned Forum has directed the respondent company in Complaint Case No. 05/2021 to issue corrected bill within a period of one month, still the said order is not being complied with.

Mr. Vinay Kirti Singh, learned senior counsel for the respondent company submits that presently he has no instruction, but he would request the respondent-company to examine the case of the petitioner and comply with the order of the Forum, if the same has attained finality.

Patna High Court CWJC No.6327 of 2023(2) dt.08-05-2023 3/3 Having regard to the facts and circumstances of the case and the materials available on the record, this Court directs the Electrical Executive Engineer, Electric Supply Division, Bhagalpur (Township) (respondent no. 3) to look into the grievance of the petitioner, examine the same, give an opportunity of hearing to the petitioner and take an appropriate decision in the light of the order of the Consumer Grievance Redressal Forum, Bhagalpur as contained in Annexure '3' to the writ application.

Let the entire exercise be done within a period of two months from the date of receipt/production of a copy of this order.

This Writ Application stands disposed of accordingly. (Rajeev Ranjan Prasad, J.) Rajeev/- U