KARACHI, July 19: A division bench of the Sindh High Court has put the provincial and the city governments on notice in a constitutional petition challenging vires of the water, fire and conservancy bills issued by the KWSB to a warehouse.

The bench, comprising Justice Ataur Rahman and Justice Zia Pervez, issued pre-admission notice to the secretary local bodies, government of Sindh, Karachi Water and Sewerage Board, the city government and advocate-general of Sindh in the wake of the petition filed by M/s Distribution Services Ltd.

The petitioner maintained that the water, fire and conservancy bills were paid regularly to the KWSB since establishment of the warehouse in North Nazimabad in 1992 and not on a single occasion they had defaulted on payment of the bills.

The warehouse, used as a transit location for distribution of commodities was from the beginning declared to be a commercial site, but the KWSB sent them the bills on a domestic rate, the petitioner said.

It was contended that even otherwise the KWSB could not levy bills, even for arrears for more than three years, as it is not the government or its department. The petitioner submitted that inefficiency of the KWSB since 1992 could not be shared by the petitioner.

As to the fire and conservancy bills, the petitioner through counsel Kazi Abdul Hameed Siddiqui submitted that the same were inherently ultra vires of the KWSB Act 1996 and the Sindh Local Government Act 2001.

Nowhere in the statutes the KWSB has been delegated or empowered to levy fire and conservancy bills. These are within the jurisdiction of the city government, the petitioner said.