Law:

Section:

Punjab Consumer Protection Act, 2005 (II of 2005)-- ----Ss. 31 & 33--Maintainability of complaint before consumer Court--TO fix damages and award--Jurisdiction--Lack of electricity was causing problem and that adjacent houses have the paid service--Respondent was being deprived of the same--Application for residential electric connection was not being decided--Lack of electricity was causing problem--Complaint was filed before Consumer Court which was decided in favour of complainant--Challenge to--Question of maintainability--Jurisdiction of Consumer Court is different from constitutional jurisdiction--Making an application for electric connection does not make the applicant a consumer and the slow response in deciding the application does not fall under the definition of service for the purpose of Consumer Protection Act--Services in-question is a supply of energy or electricity--Validity--Any administrative step prior to start of actual service is not service and does not fall within the fold of CPA--Consumer Court is to identify a consumer availing service and then if the service is defective, the Consumer Court is to fix damages and award the same--Consumer Court cannot issue a mandamus as has happened in the present case--Held: Where slow response on the application for electric connection was considered to be a matter pertaining to service--Complaint before consumer Court was not maintainable--Appeal allowed. Punjab Consumer Protection Act, 2005 (II of 2005)-- ----Ss. 2(c)(k) & 33--Application for electric connection was kept pending and later on at the time of hearing of instant appeal--Complaint was filed before Consumer Court which was decided in favour of respondent/ complainant--Challenge to--In order to invoke the jurisdiction of the Consumer Court, the complainant must first qualify to be a consumer--Held: Respondent/complainant applied for electric connection and his application kept pending and later on at the time of hearing of instant appeal, the respondent, admittedly, was served with a demand notice, which respondent was not able to deposit--At the filing of complaint or during the hearing of instant appeal, respondent never attained…

Deprecated: trim(): Passing null to parameter #1 ($string) of type string is deprecated in /home/digixyei/sldsystempk.com/view/master-layout/view_case.php on line 492