Madras high court on Wednesday dismissed a PIL challenging the method adopted by Tangedco to calculate power consumption during lockdown.
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Madras high court dismisses PIL challenging ‘amplified power charges’
Sureshkumar | TNN | Jul 15, 2020, 12:30 IST
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CHENNAI: No relief for domestic electricity consumers in
Tamil Naduagainst ‘amplified
power charges’ during the
lockdown period as the
Madras high court on Wednesday dismissed a
PIL challenging the method adopted by Tangedco to calculate power consumption during lockdown.
Tangedco calculated the consumption charges for the four months — March to June — based on the bill amount paid by each consumer for February. It was alleged that consumers can be billed only on the basis of the units consumed and not on the last payment made.
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However, refusing to accept the allegation, a division bench of Justice M M Sundresh and Justice R Hemalatha dismissed the plea moved by M L Ravi.
On July 8, while reserving the order on the plea, the bench concurred with the submission of Tangedco that domestic consumers are experiencing higher electricity bills as they are spending more time in their homes in view of Covid-19 lockdown.
Normally, anyone who is working would spend at least six to eight hours in their office or workplace. Now, they are spending such time in their homes and this might be a reason for the increase in charges, a court had said.
According to the petitioner, Tangedco has relied on the previous month bill amount to arrive at the present payable instead of considering the previous month units consumed. This resulted in low tension domestic consumers having to pay 12% to 50% higher charges than that is permissible under the Tamil Nadu Electricity Supply Code. Such method adopted by the corporation has affected 96% of domestic consumers who have been forced to pay up to 50% higher charges, according to him.
Denying the allegation, additional advocate general P H Arvind Pandian submitted that the bills could not be calculated as per the units consumed as no one including the petitioner and Tangedco knows the reading for the lockdown period.
Moreover, the method followed by the corporation to calculate the charges are proper and is in compliance with the provisions of the Act. “We have even got the approval from the Tamil Nadu Electricity Regulatory Commission,” he added.
