PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court has ruled that if the Peshawar Electric Supply Company fails to provide uninterrupted electricity to the lawful consumers of one of the electric feeders in the provincial capital, the local police should register cases against its relevant officials on the complaint of affected consumers.

A bench consisting of Chief Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth and Justice Ikramullah Khan declared that it was the duty of the electric supply company to provide smooth electricity to its consumers, who regularly paid bills, and that subjecting them to unscheduled loadshedding was a highly uncivilised act on its part.

In a detailed judgment on a petition filed by consumers of Jhagra area of Peshawar against oppressive loadshedding, the bench ruled that from day onward, the company was bound to supply uninterrupted electricity to its legal and lawful consumers of the feeder involved in the instant case failing which every consumer, who paid electricity bill within due time, was authorised to lodge an FIR against the relevant officials.

High court declares smooth electric supply people’s right

The bench had disposed of the petition on Aug 19.

Advocate Shabbir Hussain Gigyani, who had appeared for Waqas Khan Chamkani and other petitioners, said the residents of the area were registered consumers of the respondents, including Pesco, and regularly paid power bills without delay.

He said the Pesco had failed to ensure smooth power supply on different pretext by imposing unjustified loadshedding of eight to 24 hours daily.

The Pesco officials had submitted a letter to the court claiming eight hours loadshedding has been carried out on 11kv Jhagra Feeder by the PDC (power distribution centre) in line with the computed 48 per cent line losses.

An SDO told the court that the formula reflected that 48 per cent of the consumers in that area didn’t pay power bills.

The bench ordered that without going into deep merits of the case and in view of that letter, the Pesco were directed to ensure smooth electric supply to 52 per cent of families, which paid power bills regularly, without tripping and loadshedding.

It observed: “It is beyond imagination that why consumers who are paying their bills regularly are being clubbed/ attached and punished with those who are not doing so and according to data so provided the consumers who are paying regularly are in majority.

“It is the duty of the department/ power distributing company to take coercive measures against the defaulters which are totally ignored by the respondents. We have not seen any action against the field staff and the concerned quarters being taken to task when the line losses increase or those defaulters who are not paying the bills are taken to task.”

The court ruled that legal and lawful consumers and not the defaulters had every right for uninterrupted electricity supply, rest was the headache of the company how to recover and nab the defaulters and ‘kunda mafia’.

It added that it was the duty of the electric company to recover charges from defaulters and if at all they were not paying so, they could deny the supply totally to them but under no circumstances company could be permitted to punish all those who were genuine and lawful consumers.

The bench observed that it had learned that the Wapda and Pesco employees, who got free electric supply, had given power connections to neighbours on payment and had tampered with own meters as well.

It added that the Wapda and Pesco high-ups knew about the illegal activity but no action had been taken on it.

“The policy of allowing free electricity to employees is totally illegal and unlawful due to which they are selling the same from their premises to their adjoining premises and if this policy is slashed by paying them per month according to their grades, would be reasonable/ suitable measure to block the flow of selling from their premises,” it declared.

Published in Dawn, August 26th, 2020