HC strikes down Lok Adalat verdict

Cuttack: The Orissa high court has held that a Permanent Lok Adalat is not competent to pass any order on a dispute over electricity bill issued to a consumer when the grievance is pending before the ombudsman.
A single-judge bench gave the ruling on the Southern Odisha Electricity Supply Company’s petition challenging the direction issued by Permanent Lok Adalat (Ganjam) to restore power supply to the consumer without claiming reconnection charges and without directing payment of arrear dues lying against him.
“It is clear that the Permanent Lok Adalat ought not to have taken cognizance of the complaint when the purported case was already pending in the Ombudsman II; out of the framework of the Electricity Act,” Justice S K Panigrahi observed while quashing the Permanent Lok Adalat’s order on March 28.
“After going through the law laid down by the Supreme Court and various high courts, it is quite vivid that the provisions contemplated under Sections 126 and 127 of the Electricity Act constitute a complete code in itself and there is remedy of appeal against the final assessment order.
The order of the Permanent Lok Adalat is, thus, an outlier in the established scheme of things of the Electricity Act,” Justice Panigrahi also observed.
Accordingly, Justice Panigrahi ruled: “The Permanent Lok Adalat is not competent to maintain an application under Section 22 of Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987 against the pendency of the grievance redressal in the Ombudsman II under Sections 126 and Section 127 of the Electricity Act.”
“For the foregoing reasons, the impugned order dated 04.04.2015 passed by the Permanent Lok Adalat is not sustainable. Therefore, the present writ petition is allowed and the impugned order passed by the Permanent Lok Adalat in is set aside,” Justice Panigrahi said.