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Judgment
THE limited grievance against the impugned order dated 29.9.2005 passed by District Forum is that instead of granting full rebate of LPSC levied by the respondent in the electricity bill of Rs. 2,23,500 which was raised for the first time in the year 2001 and had included arrears from 1992 is that the District Forum has erred in giving only 50% of rebate of LPSC.
THE grievance of the appellant on the face of it is justified as the respondent had committed grossest kind of deficiency in service in not raising the electricity bill regularly even if the meter in question remained defective or it was not replaced nor the defect was removed for such a long period of time. For no fault of the appellant, the respondent has been given a premium for its own deficiency in service, negligence, cavalier and casual attitude towards the consumers. Instead of taking such a service provider to task by imposing very heavy punitive damages and recovering the same from the salary of the erring official, the District Forum has given a concession and premium to the respondent by only allowing the rebate of 50%. There is no need to issue any notice to the respondent in such type of cases. The appeal is allowed at the outset. The impugned order is modified to the extent that respondent shall give full rebate and shall not charge LPSC and shall raise a bill only on the basis of actual consumption or as per rules with regard to the defective meter and shall rectify the defect in the meter and shall not disconnect the electricity connection for a period of one month of raising such a bill.
Appeal is disposed of in above terms.
A copy of this order, as per the statutory requirements, be forwarded to the parties, free of charge and also to the concerned District Forum and thereafter the file be consigned to the record room. Appeal allowed.