MANGAL PRABHAT LODHE V. MAHARASHTRA STATE ELECTRICITY DISTRIBUTION COMPANY AND OTHERS
Judgement Date: 05/08/2020
Judges: Justice Dipankardatta and Justice A.S. Gadkari
Facts
It has been expressed by the applicant that the Respondent No. 1 and Respondent No.2 have been expanding the electricity bills in the midst of the current situation that has been made by the pandemic. The Respondents have cautioned the Petitioners that if they don’t pay the electricity bills accordingly their electricity will be cut. The Learned Counsel of the Petitioner expressed that because of Lock-down, the consumers are not capable to approach the Grievance Redressal Officer.
Issue
The Electricity Act of 2003 arrangements with all the issues identifying with the power charges, working as per the legal guidelines. It is a Forum to manage the issues of the customers who are allowed to move toward this gathering if there should be an occurrence of any issue.
A press note dated 3rd July 2020 was given by the Commission. The highlights of the press note are as per the following-.
The Commission was accounted for about the complaints of the power buyers and taking into account this the Commission inspected the charging framework for the period of June 2020.
On 30th March 2020, the Tariff Order was given by the Commission in regard to every one of the four significant Distribution Licensees to be specific, MSEDCL, Best Undertaking, AEMAL, and TPC of the State.
For checking the anomalous utilization, the inner control will be observed. If there should arise an occurrence of overabundance utilization, the Meter will be re-evaluated on suo moto premise. On the off chance that the Bill is more than twofold than the normal for the long stretches of March and May, the customer will take care of the tab in 3 EMI’s. The Electricity association will not be separated until the complaint pf the purchaser is tended to.
The buyers can approach IGRC, CGRF, and Electricity Ombudsman according to the arrangements of the Commission. The Commission is keeping a vigil on the charging issues and won’t give any bother to the customers by the Distribution Licensees.
The Court opined that it will depend upon the above case so as to address the issues of the purchasers. The Court saw that the duty request dated first April 2020 communicated lesser vitality charges, it will work in light of a legitimate concern for the buyers.
Judgement
The Bombay High Court held that each customer confronting misfortune comparable to electricity bills are allowed to approach the Grievance Redressal Commission (GRC).
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