HIGH COURT OF JAMMU & KASHMIR AND LADAKH AT JAMMU WP (C) No. 1085/2025 RKS Girls Higher Secondary .....Applicant(s)/Petitioner(s) Through :- Mr. Ajay Abrol, Advocate v/s UT of J & K and Ors. .....Respondent(s) Through :- Ms. Pallavi Sharma, Advocate vice Mr. Ravinder Gupta, AAG CORAM: HON’BLE MS. JUSTICE MOKSHA KHAJURIA KAZMI, JUDGE ORDER 02.05.2025 1. Petitioner herein is seeking a direction upon the respondents not to charge the electricity consumption bill from March 2020 to March 2022, the period school had remained closed due to COVID-19 pandemic and also not to charge Penal interest on the said payment with a further direction to settle the issue of the revised bill in accordance with the actual consumption of the electricity for the period from March 2020 to March 2022. Factual Matrix 2. This petition has been filed by the Trust known as RKS Educational Trust which has been established and is running for more than a decade. It is stated that in the year 2020 with the out-break of COVID-19 pandemic across the country as well as the Union Territory the petitioner had to close down the educational institution till end of March 2022. Petitioner has received excessive and exorbitant billing with respect to the load Sr. No. 121 WP (C) No. 1085/2025 2 of electricity and its usage within the premises of the school within the COVID period which as on date has been accumulated to the tune of Rs. 1,87,689/- for the month of March 2025 which includes the electricity tariff during the period the school was closed due to COVID-19 pandemic. The petitioner is holding the consumer ID No. 0102040020727 was allotted a sanction of 2 KW power load for the school premises and for the month of January 2020. The petitioner was issued a bill of Rs. 583.70/- with a pending balance of Rs. 4590.50/- as such the total bill accrued to the petitioner before the due date was Rs. 5179.00/-. The school of the petitioner reopened with the bill in January, 2022, amounting to Rs. 67,899/-. It is further stated that the bill has been issued by the respondent with a sanctioned load of 8.00 KW for the period from March 2020 to January 2022, during the time the school was closed and there was no electricity consumption by the school. On receiving the bill, the petitioner immediately made a representation to respondent no. 4 on 10.04.2022, but no heed has been paid to the repeated reminders/representations being made by the petitioner. 3. Ms. Pallavi Sharma, Advocate appearing vice Mr. Ravinder Gupta, learned AAG, representing official respondents, has stated that dispute with regard to bills in question shall be settled by the competent authority in accordance with the procedure prescribed under the Jammu and Kashmir Electricity Act and Rules framed thereunder. She has produced Order No. 06- JPDCL of 2022 dated 10.01.2022 whereby, the Internal WP (C) No. 1085/2025 3 Grievance Redressal (IGR) Cell has been formulated for Jammu Power Distribution Corporation Ltd. Jammu to record and redress grievances in a timely manner. She further states that in terms of Government order dated 10.01.2022, petitioner is supposed to approach the Internal Greivance Redressal Cell which is the competent authority for redressal of the grievance which has been raised by the petitioner in the instant petition. 4. Learned counsel for the petitioner states that he would feel satisfied if the instant petition is disposed of with a direction to petitioner to approach Internal Grievance Redressal Cell, which has been formulated in terms of Order dated 10.01.2022. 5. Ms. Pallavi Sharma, Advocate appearing vice Mr. Ravinder Gupta, learned AAG is not averse to the submission made by the learned counsel for the petitioner. 6. Be that as it may, the petition is disposed of with a direction to the petitioner to approach Internal Grievance Redressal Cell within 15 days from the date of passing of this order. Competent authority is directed to consider the grievance of the petitioner and pass appropriate orders within a period of four weeks thereafter. Till then no coercive measure shall be initiated against the petitioner. (Moksha Khajuria Kazmi) Judge JAMMU 02.05.2025 Manik