HYDERABAD, Dec 21: A division bench of the Sindh High Court, Hyderabad, on Wednesday directed the Hyderabad FIA deputy director to probe into the matter of issuing wrong detection bills by the Hesco and submit its report within four weeks.

The high court bench comprised Justice Mohammad Moosa K. Leghari and Justice Shamsuddin Hisbani.

The order was passed on a constitutional petition filed by Noor Ahmed Memon.

Hesco chief executive, superintending engineer, executive engineer and sub-divisional officer were cited as respondents by the petitioner.

The court expressed concern over detection bills issued by the Hesco on whims of their officials without any legal and reasonable justification.

The petitioner said that he had been paying the bills regularly after purchase of a flat.

He said that he had informed the Hesco a number of times that the flat was not in use and therefore its reading should be corrected.

He said the Hesco took no action and kept sending him wrong bills.

Petitioner Memon produced bills of Sui Southern Gas Company Limited (SSGC) to prove to the court that the flat was not in use for the whole year.

He said that he suffered mental torture due to illegal act of the respondents.

Mr Memon prayed before the court to correct the bill according to actual meter reading and remove the excessive bill of Rs4,697.

He requested to the court to direct the respondents to pay him Rs100,000 as compensation.

Hesco’s counsel Mohammad Idrees Naqshbandi submitted counter affidavit of SDO Gari Khata sub-division Abdul Hameed alleging that the petitioner had been using electricity through illegal manner by having the meter stopped.

He said that an instrument, Calipon meter, had proved that the petitioner had been using electricity.

Mr Hameed said the Wapda had charged an average amount of the petitioner’s previous bills for consumption of electricity for two months.

He said there was a general tendency in public to rush to courts to cover their illegality. This case was of similar nature, he observed.