IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Civil Writ Petition No.14760 of 2006 Date of decision:18.03.2010 Rattan Singh Kundu (deceased) through his LRs ....Petitioner versus D.H.B.V.N.L., through Managing Director at Hissar and others. ...Respondents CORAM: HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE K. KANNAN ---- Present: Mr. Babbar Bhan, Advocate, for the petitioner. Mr. Birender Singh Rana, Advocate, for the respondents. ---- 1. Whether reporters of local papers may be allowed to see the judgment ? 2. To be referred to the reporters or not ? 3. Whether the judgment should be reported in the digest ? ---- K.Kannan, J. (Oral) 1. The writ petition has been filed challenging the order passed by the Under Secretary, D.H.B.V.N.L., Hissar, fixing liability of Rs.20.08 lakhs to be recovered from the retiral benefits of the petitioner on the ground that he had by his negligence not collected electricity charges from the consumer between the years 1992 to June, 1995 to the tune of Rs.10.04 lakhs. An amount of Rs.20.08 lakhs was ordered to be recovered from the retiral benefits which was twice the amount payable by the consumer. 2. The learned counsel appearing for the petitioner while making his submissions seeks for time to produce the relevant rules relating to how the liability could be fixed and which officer will be responsible for a default by a consumer. The learned counsel appearing Civil Writ Petition No.14760 of 2006 - 2 - for the respondent points out that as per Regulation 9, there is a provision for an appeal against the order and the writ petition filed even without exhausting the remedy provided under the Regulation is not maintainable. 3. Although the case is of the year 2006 and the case could have been disposed of here, since the petitioner is not still ready to complete his arguments and the petitioner shall not have a right to adjudication before this Court. The petitioner shall exhaust his remedy before the authority contemplated under Regulation 9 and reserving to the petitioner the liberty to approach the authority constituted under the Regulation, the writ petition is disposed of. The authority shall consider any plea for excluding the time that the petitioner had taken in bona fide prosecution of the case before this Court and dispose of the case on merits. The petitioner shall approach the authority within a period of 4 weeks from the date of the receipt of the copy of the order and the authority shall dispose of such an appeal within a period of 3 months from the date when the application is filed, if he considers the plea of exclusion of the time before this Court favourably in favour of the petitioner. If the appeal is not presented before the authority as directed, the petitioner shall have no further remedy. 4. The writ petition is disposed of on the above terms. (K.KANNAN) JUDGE 18.03.2010 sanjeev