Discom rapped for not giving connection

To what level would you stoop if you hadn’t got an electricity connection even six years after applying for it? Fifty-year-old Prem Kumar Solanki chose to steal power. But this East Punjabi Bagh resident has the ‘support’ of the court, reports Sumit Saxena.

To what level would you stoop if you hadn’t got an electricity connection even six years after applying for it?

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Fifty-year-old Prem Kumar Solanki chose to steal power. But this East Punjabi Bagh resident has the ‘support’ of the court.

Additional District Judge Kamini Lau said, “It is unfortunate that the consumer was pushed to the limits of stealing electricity for so many years.”

“And he had to approach the court to get a meter installed.”

In his petition, Solanki claimed that in 2002 he deposited Rs 20,745 as per BSES officials to get a new electricity metre installed at his house. But the discom did not do so.

Solanki stays on the first floor of a building and his father and elder brother stay on the ground and the second floor, respectively, in west Delhi.

The discom installed electricity metres on their floors but failed to do so for the first floor house.

In July 2006, Solanki sent a legal notice to BSES, but he neither got a reply nor was a meter installed. He then approached the court for help.

BSES counsel told the court that all the three meters have been installed on the premises and power is consumed regularly and the charges paid.

Slamming the BSES, the judge said, “It is a problem which could have been addressed at a junior level in the department. This has caused the petitioner physical, mental and financial inconvenience.”

BSES officials had installed a new meter at Solanki’s house in November 2008 during the pendency of the suit.

The court imposed a fine of Rs 20,000 on BSES along with an interest of 6% p.a. from the date of decree till the realization of the decreetal amount, and the costs of the suit.