A contempt petition has been filed against BESCOM's managing director and two other Bescom officers for wilful disobedience of a judgment passed by the High Court. The High Court has accepted the petition and has issued notice to Bescom managing director P. Manivannan, the chairman of the consumer grievance redressal forum of the utility, and one other official.
The petition has been filed by Nagendra, manager of Spa Plaza Shop Owners' Association, Nagarthpet. In 2009, he was back-billed for a time frame of 10 years even though the fault lay with a Bescom transformer (which, incidentally, was certified to be in perfect condition in one of Bescom's reports). Mr Nagendra won the appeal before the Electricity Ombudsman, but Bescom challenged the order. On November 25, 2010, Bescom approached the High Court. The High Court categorically rejected the claims of Bescom.
On February 1, 2012, Bescom again filed an application against the consumer, which again was dismissed by the HC. Despite the fact that the High Court had rejected the squashed the appeals of Bescom, the utility continued to levy the back billing charges on the consumer every month.
On June 26, Bescom went further and issued a notice to the consumer threatening to cut his power supply if bills were not paid. The Bescom consumer grievance forum said that when the complainant has the audacity to approach the High Court on every trivial issue, this time too the complainant should approach the court. On Tuesday, the High Court accepted the contempt petition against the three officials and ordered the notice to be served on them.