New Delhi, March 6, 2006

Press Release

Court room Drama: Customer asked to pay Rs 3.34 crores in Electricity Dues – Plaintiff manhandles BSES legal team in Court premises

• Court orders customer to pay Rs 3.43 in pending dues – from December 2000 onwards
• Plaintiff and his accomplice manhandle BSES legal team (including a women lawyer) inside the Tis Hazari premise
• Customer was evading payment for six years by employing delaying tactics

Pending electricity dues of Rs 3.43 crore – an ambiguous Court judgement – delaying tactics by the plaintiff – manhandling of the BSES legal team by the plaintiff and his “boys” in the Court premises – all ingredients of a masala Bollywood blockbuster. But this is not a much repeated stereotyped scene from a Hindi movie – but a real life drama enacted at the Tis Hazari Court premises.

According to a BSES spokesperson “On the day of the hearing of the case in Tis Hazari, the plaintiff – “Bisheshwar Nath & Company”, and accomplices manhandled the members of the BSES legal team – including a women lawyer. Looking at the gravity of the situation, the Additional District Judge informed the District Judge of the Tis Hazari Court of the deteorating situation and requested for protection for the BSES legal team which was present on the Court premise. The District Judge inturn called the police to control the situation”

The “Bisheshwar Nath & Company Vs BSES Rajdhani Power Limited (BRPL)” case dates back to December 1999 – when the plaintiff filed a suit challenging an electricity bill of nearly Rs 7 lakh for the month of December - “praying” that the meter was defective.

On February 17, 2000 – the judge allowed Bisheshwar Nath & Company – the plaintiff to deposit 75 percent of the bills from December 1999. After BSES took over the distribution business in its licensed area in Delhi – it appealed against the “75 percent” order of a Tees Hazari Court and even appealed in the High Court. The plaintiff kept on employing various delaying tactics – and kept misleading the Courts. The matter continued to shift from one Court to another - taking more than six years to arrive for the final judgement.

“A couple of days ago, the Additional District Judge of the Tis Hazari Court gave the final decision – “Plaintiff is also directed to deposit the remaining 25 percent of the arrears to the bill amount for the period between 17.2.2000 to 31.12.2005 within one month from the date of the order” The amount in question has since accumulated to around Rs 3.43 crore”, said a BSES official.

According to Mr Lalit Jalan, Director BSES “We welcome the Court’s judgement, asking the plaintiff to pay the arrears of Rs 3.43 crore to BSES. This is just one customer owing BSES Rs 3.43 crore and we have 23 lakh customers in Delhi. Just imagine the loss to BSES from erring customers.

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