HC disposes of PIL over high electricity bills, asks power companies to deal with complaints within 8 weeks

On Tuesday, Bombay High Court disposed of a petition filed by a Mumbai-based businessman asking the government and power companies to reduce the amount of electricity bill that people received in June. The petitioner had also requested that a strategy be formulated to see that consumers are not overburdened in future.

Petitioner Ravindra M Desai's power provider was state-run Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Co. Ltd (MSEDCL). He claimed that he had received a bill that was 10 times more than what he usually receives. He had also heard that he was not alone in this problem and there were many others who received exorbitant bills in the state.

Attaching the media reports, Desai, with the help of his lawyer Vikas Saxena, had filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in this regard.

The PIL came up for hearing twice before different division benches of the high court but all of them said: "not before me". Finally, on July 14, the PIL was heard by Justice P B Varale and Justice Milind N Jadhav.

Saxena, during arguments, appealed that the government should think of giving a subsidy, like the Madhya Pradesh government, on humanitarian grounds amid the current situation.

The power-supply companies in Maharashtra justified the exorbitant electricity bills saying that they were not able to physically take meter readings during the lockdown period, hence, an average bill was sent to consumers during this time. Moreover, during the lockdown, most people were at home so their electricity consumption was higher. Therefore, when the actual readings were taken after lockdown restrictions eased, people received higher bills, the companies said.

After hearing arguments from all sides, the court instructed the petitioner to first go to the grievance forum of MSEDCL. The MSEDCL was also directed to look at the complaint and solve it within eight weeks.

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