Bengaluru: The High Court of Karnataka, on Thursday dismissed a petition filed against state government circular directing the electricity supply companies to issue average consumption bill for the month of April.
The Court, which held the petition to be an ‘abuse of process of law’ imposed a cost of Rs 50,000 on the petitioners. The same has to be paid within two weeks to the Chief Minister Relief Fund, COVID-19.
The petitioners P C Rao (65) and K Ganesh Nayak (46), have been directed to submit a receipt of the payment made by email to the Registrar (Judicial).
A division bench of Chief Justice Abhay Oka and Justice B V Nagarathna said, “There was no public interest involved in the petition. We find that the act of the State Government of issuing the circular dated April 3, is itself in public interest. This court is dealing with the very important issues such as non-availability of the food and necessities of life to the weaker sections of the society. In our view, the petitioners ought not to have filed the present petition.”
The circular dated April 3 speaks about the extraordinary situation created due to the spread of COVID – 19 and the lockdown and the fact that consumers are unable to pay their electricity bills, which is affecting the liquidity of the distribution companies.
Keeping this in mind, the government directed to issue bills for April, on the basis of the average electricity consumption and to make available various modes to enable the citizens to obtain copies of the bills through e-mails, Watsapp, SMS, etc.
It is only a one time measure for the current month (April) keeping in view the COVID – 19, regulations in place and for the safety of the consumers.
Regular meter reading, billing and collection activities shall be made as before from 1st May 2020 and any difference in the average bill and the actual reading may be adjusted in the following month’s bill.
The bench also took into consideration that a petition seeking a writ in the nature of mandamus is filed on the very day on which a representation was made to the State Government and other Authorities.
It said “We are constrained to observe that the filing of such a petition is an abuse of process of law and, therefore, while we dismiss the petition, the petitioners will have to be saddled with costs. We quantify the cost amount at Rs.50,000.”
Inputs from livelaw.com
