Jharkhand High Court: Rajesh Shankar, J. dismissed the petition on grounds of maintainability.
The present writ petition was filed for following reasons:
- to quash the bill for the month of November-2019 as it relates to Rs 10,10,903 allegedly shown as dues up-to October-2017 for which neither any detail nor any earlier arrear has been
- to issue direction upon the respondents to give the details of arrear
- to issue direction upon the respondents not to levy Minimum Guarantee Charges during the period of disconnection since the disconnection of the line itself was absolutely illegal and
- to issue direction upon the respondents to accept the current monthly charges from the month of November-2019 onwards.
The counsel Navin Kumar for the respondent-JUVNL, raised a preliminary objection as to the maintainability of the writ petition and submitted that the respondent-JUVNL has constituted five different forums for redressal of the consumers grievance in view of Section 42(5) of the Electricity Act, 2003 and they have an efficacious/statutory remedy of filing a complaint before the concerned forum on the present issue.
The Court dismissed the present petition on grounds of maintainability and held that as the respondent-JUVNL has already constituted Consumer Grievance Redressal Forums at five different places for adjudication of electricity dispute, the present writ petition is not maintainable at this stage and directed to prefer a complaint before the Electricity Consumer Grievance Redressal Forum.
In view of the above, the writ petition is disposed of. [Jahirul Islam v. Jharkhand Urja Vikas Nigam Limited, 2020 SCC OnLine Jhar 229, decided on 02-03-2020]