RAWALPINDI: The Lahore High Court (LHC) Rawalpindi bench has set aside the petition of Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) against the order of the Federal Ombudsman that asked the gas company to install a new connection to a litigant.

LHC Justice Jawad Hassan directed the SNGPL to install the gas meter despite the ban imposed by the government by upholding the decisions of the federal ombudsman and the president of Pakistan.

Justice Hassan dismissed the the SNGPLpetition by stating that the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) had no jurisdiction to stop the installation of the connection. Besides, the direction of the ombudsman was rightly issued because the citizen had applied for a house gas connection in 2019 and paid all charges and demand notices prior to the ban in December 2021.

The court order said the SNGPL had been delaying connection for two years, which amounts to maladministration.

Previously, a citizen had approached the ombudsman as the SNGPL, citing a moratorium on the new connection, had not been installing the new gas meter on his premises.

The Ombudsman then directed the SNGPL to install the gas connection, which was endorsed by the President.

The SNGPL, on the other hand, adopted before the court that the ombudsman was not vested with any jurisdiction to entertain such a complaint and cited that the litigant could have approached Ogra under Section 42(e) of the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority Ordinance, 2002, which provides a mechanism for the resolution of complaints between a consumer and the gas company. Besides, the ministry of energy had also imposed a ban on new gas connections to the domestic sector.

The counsel representing the Ombudsman contended that the issue in hand clearly falls within the jurisdiction of the Ombudsman, and thus he has rightly exercised his jurisdiction.

Justice Hassan observed that the Ombudsman had been empowered to diagnose, investigate, redress, and rectify any injustice done to a person through maladministration. The purpose was thus to undo the administrative excesses from within the administration so that justice could be made available.

He further observed that the Ombudsman “is neither a court nor a judicial tribunal within the scope of Article 175 of the Constitution.”

Moreover, the judge emphasised that the matter agitated in the complaint was related to the non-provision of a new gas connection, which has been denied by the SNGPL, and such action appeared to be unreasonable, unjust, oppressive, and arbitrary.

Hence, the Ombudsman “has rightly observed that “the complainant should not be penalised for such a ban where he paid an urgent fee before the cutoff date, i.e., 11.12.2021.”

The judge noted that the observations of the Ombudsman were in consonance with those of the superior courts.

Published in Dawn, December 24th, 2023