Court No. - 1
Case :- WRIT - C No. - 41974 of 2019 Petitioner :- Kamlawati Singh Respondent :- Chairman, U P State Power Corporation And 2 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Rajesh Kumar Counsel for Respondent :- Mahboob Ahmad
Hon'ble Ramesh Sinha,J. Hon'ble Ajit Kumar,J.
Heard Sri Rajesh Kumar, learned counsel for the petitioner, Sri Mahboob Ahmad, learned Advocate appearing on behalf of respondent-corporation and perused the record.
By means of this petition under article 226 of the constitution, the petitioner has claimed refund of certain amount taking the plea that excessive bill has been issued in the past and, therefore, deposit made by the petitioner is in access to the amount which otherwise due upon the petitioner towards the electricity consumed.
Per contra, learned counsel appearing for the respondent argued that the petitioner has already approached the consumer forum with regard to the disputed bills and a direction has been by this Court on 15.5.2019 in Writ- C No. 14046 of 2019 for disposal of the same.
In such view of the matter, we are of the opinion that once the dispute regarding the bill or any amount deposited in pursuance thereof by the petitioner, is engaging attention of the consumer forum under the Consumer Protection Act, no further direction can be issued in this matter nor, a parallel proceeding be permitted to drawn under article 226 of the constitution. If the petitioner is aggrieved with the pending application before the consumer forum is not being disposed of in spite of the direction of this Court, it is left open for him to proceed for a contempt court.
It is always open for the petitioner to take such additional plea before the consumer forum in the pending application, if he is so advised.
The writ petition is misconceived and is, accordingly, dismissed.
(Ajit Kumar, J.) (Ramesh Sinha, J.) Order Date :- 18.12.2019 Shiraz