ANIRUDHA RATH Vs. TELECOM DISTRICT MANAGER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The complainant has filed this case praying for compensation of Rs.60,000/- for the deficiency in service and Rs.5,000/- towards costs for the mental agony and inconvenience caused to him by giving inflated bills and arbitrary disconnection of the telephone bearing No.3004 which has now become 24035. His case is that since the installation of the aforesaid telephone in his premises in October, 1987, he had been regularly paying bills as and when received within due date till February, 1992. According to him, the said previous bills never exceeded Rs.450/-, except on two or three occasions when the bills came to Rs.700/-. In the month of April, 1992, the complainant received a bill dated 21.9.92 amounting to Rs.1,09,413/-. He was shocked to receive such an excessive bill. On enquiry with the Telehone Exchange, he was advised to lodge a complaint before the Accounts Officer in the office of the Telecom District Manager, Bhubaneswar which he did. But his complaint was not heard and he was not intimated about the outcome of his complaint although he called on the concerned authorities several times. Instead, in quick succession thereafter he received bills dated 21.6.92 and 21.8.92 which according to him were also defective for some reason or the other. He pointed out the defects in the said two bills and asked for a Demand Note after rectification of the defects. The local office refused to grant him the Demand Note and instead disconnected the phone on 23.2.90 without prior notice. When he contacted the concerned officers, they promised to finalise the same, but nothing having been done, he could neither pay the amount against these two bills nor his telephone was restored. While the matter stood thus he received a notice from the department with threatening that the outstanding amount including that of the bill dated 21.4.92 shall be realised from him through process of law. A month thereafter he received another notice that he would be black-listed. The opposite parties did not stop at that and requested the Incometax Officer, Puri and the Tahasildar, Puri with copy to the vigilance Officer, Office of C. G. M. T. , Orissa Circle, to take appropriate action against him in the matter. Earlier also his telephone had been arbitrarily disconnected for non-payment of an inflated bill which was later revised and on payment of the said revised bill the telephone connection was restored. Having failed to get a fair deal from the opposite parties he took recourse to filing of a complaint before this Commission praying for the aforesaid reliefs.

(2.) On being noticed, the department which was represented by its officers has entered appearance and filed the show-cause. In the showcause it has been stated that the telephone was disconnected for non-payment of bills dated 21.6.91, 21.2.92, 21.6.92, 21.8.92, 21.10.92, 21.12.92 and 21.2.93. They have tried to justify that the bills were regularly sent to the complainant and that he defaulted in making the payment of the aforesaid bills for which the telephone was disconnected. During the course of enquiry, we enquired about the complainant's written objection to the bill dated 21.4.92 and Mr. Mohapatra appearing for the opposite parties informed us that the same has now been settled at Rs.200/-. Admittedly therefore, the bill dated 21.4.92 was revised wrongly. From the list of the outstanding bills as given in the show-cause filed by the opposite parties, we find that the bill is dated 21.10.92 amounting to Rs.200/- and the highest bill is dated 21.6.92 amounting to Rs.428/-. It is, therefore, correct to assume that the complainant's bill used to be around Rs.400/- excepting on two or three occasions as admitted by him in the complaint petition that it was around Rs.700/-. In the circumstances, if the subscriber receives a bill for an amount for exceeding rupees one lakh for a period covering two months only, it is quite natural that he would have been unnerved and would have lost his mental balance. Such ghastly mistakes in preparation of bills in our opinion is not excusable. From the arguments advanced before us by the learned Counsel appearing for the opposite parties, we appreciate that the highly exaggerated and imaginary bill dated 21.4.92 must have sufficiently disturbed the complainant and no fault can be found with him for non-payment of the subsequent bills. The attitude of the Department in giving him a lawyer's notice for realisation of the amount exceeding one lakh of rupees by process of law and subsequent notice of the threatened black-listing on non-payment of the said demanded amount and notifying the matter to Income-tax Officer, Puri and the Tahasildar, Puri cannot but be condemned with all the contempt it deserves. Such threatening and insulting action against the complainant in our opinion crossed all limits and is clear high-handedness and smacks of caprice and is gross abuse of official powers. We have, therefore, no hestitation to direct restoration of the telephone of the complainant without any reconnection for and without charging any rent for the intervening period on payment of the outstanding bills dated 21.4.92, 21.6.91, 21.2.92, 21.10.92, 21.12.92 and 21.2.93 for which a Demand Note shall be issued by the Department to the complainant within a fortnight from the date of receipt of the copy of this order. Though the complainant is entitled to compensation under the facts and circumstances of the case, the learned Counsel appearing for the complainant who also happens to be his brother submits that he does not press for compensation and that is why we do not award any compensation against the opposite parties. He also does not press for costs. The complaint petition is disposed of with the aforesaid directions. Copies of this order be sent to the Chief Zonal Manager, Telecommunication, Orissa Circle, Bhubaneswar and the Ministry of Telecommunication, Government of India, New Delhi by registered post for taking appropriate action against the erring officials. B. Rath, Member-I agree. M. Padhi, Member-I agree.