IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB & HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Civil Writ Petition No.18013 of 2009 Date of Decision : July 06, 2010. Saroop Singh .....Petitioner versus District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, Amritsar and others .....Respondents CORAM : HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE SURYA KANT. Present : Mr.Saroop Singh-Petitioner in person with Mr.Amit Jain, Amicus-Curiae. -.- 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? --- Surya Kant, J. (Oral) On the oral prayer made by the petitioner, Union of India through its Secretary, Ministry of Telecommunication, New Delhi, is ordered to be impleaded as respondent No.4. Notice of motion. Mr.Karminder Singh, Advocate accepts notice on behalf of respondent No.3 and newly added respondent No.4. In view of the nature of order which I propose to pass, there is C.W.P.No .18013 of 2009 2 no need to serve respondent Nos.1 & 2 at this stage nor there is need to seek any counter-reply from the respondents. The petitioner is aggrieved at the order dated 2.5.2008 (Annexure P-2) passed by the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, Amritsar, whereby the complaint filed by him against M/s Airtel has been dismissed as withdrawn on his own statement, on account of alleged technical defect and he has been permitted to withdraw the same with liberty to file a fresh complaint. Learned Amicus-Curiae points out that in view of the recent decision of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in General Manager, Telecom versus M.Krishnan & another (2009 (8) SCC 481), the petitioner will not be able to file a complaint before the Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum as he has got a special remedy under Section 7-B of the Telegraph Act, 1885, which inter-alia, provides that in the event of any dispute concerning any telegraph line, appliance or apparatus, the dispute shall be determined by arbitration and for that purpose, the matter shall be referred to an Arbitrator appointed by the Central Government either specifically for the determination of that dispute or generally for the determination of disputes under this Section. In this view of the matter, the writ petition is disposed of with liberty to the petitioner to raise an arbitration dispute before the Prescribed Authority of the Central Government who shall on receipt thereof, act in accordance with Section 7-B of the Telegraph Act, 1885, within a period of two months of receipt of such complaint. C.W.P.No .18013 of 2009 3 Let a copy of this order be supplied to the petitioner free of costs by the Copying Agency. Dasti. July 06, 2010 (SURYA KANT) Mohinder JUDGE