Court No. - 1
Case :- WRIT - C No. - 27584 of 2019 Petitioner :- Rahul Dubey Respondent :- State Of U P And 3 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Sanjeev Kumar Yadav Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.
Hon'ble Ramesh Sinha,J. Hon'ble Ajit Kumar,J.
Heard Sri Sanjeev Kumar Yadav, learned counsel for the petitioner and Sri Baleshwar Chaturvedi learned counsel for the respondents and learned Standing Counsel.
By means of this petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India the petitioner has approached this Court for a writ of mandamus commanding the respondents to amend the Electricity Bill of the petitioner exempting the penalty and interest. However, from the perusal of the record we find that the petitioner had already approached in this regard the District Consumer Forum Aurraiya that had passed an order to this effect that no penalty and interest could be imposed upon the petitioner. On a pointed query made to the learned counsel for the petitioner as to what happened after the order was passed by the Consumer Forum, he says that no action has been taken by the respondents in compliance thereof.
At this juncture, learned Standing Counsel has brought the notice of the Court the relevant provisions of Section 25 of the Consumer Protection Act 1986 and under the said provisions, there is a procedure prescribed for enforcement of the orders of the District Forum as well as the State Commission and the National Commission. The provisions as contained under Section 25 is reproduced hereunder:-
1. Where an interim order made under this Act is not complied with, the District Forum or the State Commission or the National Commission, as the case may be, may order the property of the person, not complying with such order to be attached.
2. No attachment made under sub-Section (1) shall remain in force for more than three months at the end of which, if the non-compliance continues, the property attached may be sold and out of the proceeds thereof, the District Forum or the State Commission or the National Commission may award such damages as it thinks fit to the complainant and shall pay the balance, if any, to the party entitled thereto.
3. Where any amount is due from any person under an order made by a District Forum, State Commission or the National Commission, as the case may be, the person entitled to the amount may make an application to the District Forum, the State Commission or the National Commission or the National Commission, as the case may be, and such District Forum or the State Commission or the National Commission may issue a certificate for the said amount to the Collector of the district (by whatever name called) and the Collector shall proceed to recover the amount in the same manner as arrears of land revenue.
In view of the above we are disposing the writ petition with a direction to the petitioner to approach for an appropriate remedy under the aforesaid section and it is further provided that in case the petitioner approaches the appropriate forum, the same shall be looked into in the light of the power as conferred upon the District Consumer Forum under Section 25 of the Act.
Accordingly the writ petition is disposed of.
Order Date :- 22.8.2019 C. MANI (Ajit Kumar,J.) (Ramesh Sinha,J.)