' Through this petition, the petitioner has made the following prayer:- "(a) declare that the raid conducted at the factory of petitioner by the respondents Nos.5, 4, 7, 8 may please be declared as illegal, void and abs initio, in violation of the Electricity Act.
(b) Declare that the removal of meter by respondent No,AP-072719, from the Factory of the petitioner as illegal, void ab initio in violation of the Electricity Act.
(c) That the act of detaining the petitioner by the respondents Nos.3 to 8 and coercing the petitioner for making payment of the token money may please be declared as illegal and in violation of the Electricity Act.
(d) Declare that nothing is due and payable by the petitioner to the respondent No,2, and the amount of supplementary bill may please be deleted from the bill for the month of April, 2001, and the respondent No,2 is liable to pay/return back the amount of token money worth Rs,40,000 to petitioner which has been forcibly taken from the petitioner on 9-4-2001, and the supplementary bill be declared as illegal.
(e) To grant permanent injunction against the respondents restraining them, their agents, servants, employees or any other person or persons acting on their behalf from disconnecting their electricity from Meter No,072719 at Niaz Plastic Plot No,4/D, 73, Islam Nagar, Orangi Town, Karachi.
(f) To grant costs of the petitioner petition and
(g) To grant such further/additional relief deems fit under the circumstances of the case."
2. Relevant facts for disposal of this petition, in brief, are that the petitioner and his brother are running a Plastic Moulding Factory in the name and style of Messrs Niaz Plastic where industrial electricity Meter bearing No,Ap-072719 was installed. On 31-3-2001 at about 10-00 a.m. a team of KESC consisting of respondents Nos.5 and 6 in company of some Army officials arrived at the factory and inspected meter, other apparatus and electricity line and prepared a site inspection report with the observation that main cover bond and seal were doubtful and the said report was got signed by the petitioner by force. Subsequently, it is stated that the petitioner paid Rs,40,000 against a demand of Rs,5,00,000 which the petitioner was being coerced to pay. After payment of the aforementioned amount, it is stated, the old meter was removed, a new meter was installed and a supplementary bill for the amount of Rs,3,31,440.62 as arrears was sent. Grievance of the petitioner is that the said supplementary bill is unjustified, arbitrary, without assigning any reason and also without issuance of any show-cause notice.
3. On the other hands, parawise comments filed by respondents No,2 to 6 reveal that during the course of inspection on 31-3-2001 by KESC officials, it was found that meter was discrepant such as meter terminal seal was not intact, meter terminal security seal was not found on it, the metering equipment was defective, internal mechanism was disturbed and tampered with which fact on a laboratory test was confirmed. It was also stated that consumer had given an undertaking in writing that he would pay supplementary bill which was prepared on the basis of connected load i,e, 20 KW x 26 days x 0.8 Load Factor Per Month for a period commencing from April, 1999 to March, 2001 amounting to Rs,3,65,118.31 after adjusting the units already charged. It is further stated that a 7 days' notice was issued to the consumer but he did not furnish any reply, instead he gave undertaking for the payment of supplementary bill and that the petitioner had paid Rs,40,000 for which he is entitled for adjustment in the supplementary bill.
4. Contentions of the learned counsel for the petitioner is that the inspection was carried without joining the petitioner or anybody from his side and that the decision of the KESC Authorities on the basis of such ex parte report is arbitrary and illegal not warranting the payment of Rs,3,65,118.31 as has been demanded from the petitioner. Learned counsel during the course of his arguments submitted further'that he was paying the electricity bill regularly, however, the supplementary was deposited by then. He further submitted that on 17th October, 2002 while this petition was pending KESC Authorities removed the meter forcibly putting the petitioner in heavy losses and with the result of stopping the function of the factory on account of non-supply of the electricity. As against this, the Law Officer of respondent while reiterating the facts as are stated in their parawise comments, argued that the respondent concerned issued supplementary bill as per rules. It was neither arbitrary nor capricious therefore; petitioner was under legal obligation to pay the same.
5. Learned Additional Advocate-General, Sindh adopted the arguments of the learned counsel appearing for KESC.
6. We have given our anxious consideration to the arguments of the learned counsel for the parties and we have also perused the material made available before us.
7. It appears that in this matter factual controversy is involved needing its resolution by way of a detailed enquiry, by recording evidence as to the allegations and counter-allegations of the parties for which a Constitutional petition is not a proper remedy. Reference can be made to the case of Muhammad Younus Khan and 12 others v. Government of N.-W.F.P. Through Secretary, Forest and Agriculture, Peshawar and others 1993 SCM R 618, Syed Ghulam Abbas Bokhari v.
Government of the Punjab and others 1997 CLC 1330 and Messrs Arshad & Company v. Capital Development Authority, Islamabad 2000 SCM R 1557.
8. In the circumstances, this petition is patently not maintainable and is dismissed in limine alongwith listed applications. Petitioner is, however, at liberty to seek redress of his grievance before the proper forum if he so likes, in accordance with law.