Nagpur: The distribution franchisee for more than three-fourths of Nagpur, SND Limited Nagpur, recently experienced a big win of sorts. Recently the Hon’ble Civil Court (senior division) of Nagpur has issued orders for attachment warrant (kurki) of property of a consumer who had been defaulting bill since a long time. The execution order comes across as a relief for the distribution franchisee which is reeling under huge losses due to non-payment of electricity bills by a few thousand consumers. It is expected that other such defaulting consumers would take a lesson or two from this matter and avoid faceloss in public.
In the aforesaid matter it was informed that the consumer Mr Anil WamanraiIlamkar holds consumer no. 410016301250. The address belongs to Rambagh colony, Manewada, Nagpur. The consumer had a commercial meter had not been making payments since long time. So in the year 2015, the distribution franchisee decided to approach the Permanent LokAdalat (PLA) for mediation in this matter (PLA case no. 241/2015).
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After long hearing in this matter, the PLA passed an award for recovery of due amount. The consumer was present during all the hearings and accepted the orders of the PLA at first. However, despite repeated reminders the consumer did not pay the recoverable amount as decreed by the PLA. After waiting for a statutory period, SNDL approached civil court senior division Nagpur and filed execution petition (Execution case no. 8/2018). The amount due on the consumer today stands at Rs. 46,526/-.
Recently, the Hon’ble court issued a warrant for attachment (kurki) of movable property. The court bailiff reached the premises of consumer on 26th March 2019 for execution of warrant but the consumer obstructed the bailiff from carrying out execution of attachment.
A team of SNDL officials had also reached the spot. However, the consumer exercised his political clout and gathered a few supporters who resisted the court bailiff. Unfortunately, the execution warrant could not be serviced due to the obstruction created by consumer. Therefore, now that there has been a contempt by way of resisting the court order, SNDL would now move an application for attachment of immovable property along with police protection as the next step.
In this and many other such matters, SNDL has expressed that it tries its best to resolve consumer issues such as billing etc at its own end first to avoid any escalation. However, sometimes it is sheer willful attitude of consumers to not pay their electricity bills.
This non-cooperation by defaulting consumers makes the process difficult and lengthy. It also becomes a matter of public faceloss for the consumer as in the case above. We are open to help consumers wherever they require it but non-payment of bills is not acceptable for a utility. We would go through all legal processes for recovery of our rightful dues.
