The court ordered the department to allot a new telephone to the complainant, adjust the rental paid, and compensate the complainant for the inconvenience caused due to communication gaps between post offices and the telephone authority.

Mr. Justice S.C. Datta, President—Heard learned Counsels for the parties. It is accepted that the Telephone line of the complainant who is the respondent here had been disconnected on 25.3.1998 on the allegation of non-payment of bills. There is, however, no paper on the side of the Department to show that in fact any amount was outstanding against the said Telephone. It is also accepted that the Telephone line has since been allotted to some one else. Learned Counsel for the complainant submits that no amount is in arrear in respect of the said Telephone, but the Department has illegally disconnected it causing much inconvenience and suffering to him. He submits that the complainant has suffered much in business and in reputation because of disconnection of the Telephone. It is submitted by the learned Counsel for the Department that since the payment was done in 2 Post Offices the payments could not be connected and as such no action could be taken for reflecting the payment in respect of the Telephone. However, having considered the submission of the learned Counsel for the parties we deem it appropriate to pass the following order.

2. The Department would allot a new Telephone to the complainant subject to payment of any outstanding arrears in respect of the previous connection within a period of one month from the date of this order without charging anything extra for allotment of this new Telephone.

3. The complainant has paid rental of the previous Telephone for about 9 months during which period the line remained disconnected. This amount should be worked out and to be adjusted from the subsequent bills in respect of the new Telephone.

4. The complainant had to suffer much because of communication gap between the two Post Offices and the Telephone Authority regarding payment made by the complainant in respect of his Telephone and for this lapse on the part of the Department the complainant had to suffer for the last few years. So the complainant would get Rs. 2,500/- as compensation from the Department.

5. With this observation the appeal be disposed of and the Judgment of the Forum is modified to the extent as indicated above.

Appeal disposed of.