LARKANA, Nov 15: The Sindh High Court, Larkana circuit bench, on Tuesday issued notices to the chief executive of the Hyderabad Electric Supply Company, superintending engineer of the Larkana operation circle, executive engineer operation division-I, SDO empire sub-division and revenue officer division-II to appear in the court on Nov 24 in connection with a petition regarding detection power bills filed by Irshad Ali Junejo.

The petitioner through his advocate Illahi Bakhsh Kehar said that the Hesco SDO of the Empire Road sub-division had been sending him monthly bills showing much higher reading than actually depicted by the meter.

The petitioner approached the superintendent engineer who referred him to executive engineer and so the SDO concerned for bills correction.

The SDO demanded illegal gratification which the petitioner had plainly refused, he said.

It had enraged the SDO who accused the petitioner of electricity theft and included the detection amount in the bill.

The SDO sent inflated bill for September 2005 showing 13,775 units though the actual meter reading was 10,592, the petitioner said.

The petitioner under protest made payment of Rs11,337 apprehending the disconnection by the SDO concerned.

The petitioner said that he was ready to pay electricity charges only in accordance with the reading recorded by the meter and not more than it.

He said that the detection bill sent to him was illegal as he had not been served with any prior notice even to that effect.

The petitioner prayed the court to direct the respondents to charge electric bills amount only in accordance with the reading recorded in the meter.

He requested the court to declare that the amount of detection bill claimed by respondents was illegal, void and without jurisdiction.