Karnataka High Court Questions BESCOM's Non-Availability Of UPI Payment Facility For Electricity Bills

Karnataka High Court Questions BESCOM's Non-Availability Of UPI Payment Facility For Electricity Bills

Karnataka High Court directed the Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (BESCOM) to file an affidavit explaining its refusal to allow consumers to pay their bills using the Unified Payments Interface (UPI).

Justice NS Sanjay Gowda remarked during the hearing, "You are making a consumer come to court and ask for a writ petition to be able to pay the bill? Someone is willing to pay the bill here. The government is screaming from the rooftops, asking citizens to go digital, and you want to go back in time to collect currency notes? It is rather strange that in this age and time BESCOM is refusing to accept money through UPI when the whole world is accepting payments through UPI."

The Court was hearing a petition filed by Seethalakshmi, who sought directives for BESCOM to allow consumers to make payments for new electricity connections, prepaid meters, and other services using UPI.

The petitioner informed the Court that BESCOM had denied his client's application for power supply and a pre-payment meter. When Seethalakshmi approached BESCOM and attempted to pay the bill at the cash counter using UPI, she was informed that the facility was not available.

Counsel for BESCOM argued that UPI payments are currently allowed only if a consumer uses the fast-track mode on the BESCOM app for bill payment. "They can sit at home and use UPI. But at the counter, they need to pay by cash, and if the bill amount is higher than $10,000, then they need to give a demand draft. What happened in the present case was they wanted to avoid going to the bank for the DD and were insisting on a UPI scanner," he explained.

Petitioner countered that many senior citizens, women, disabled persons, and other consumers visit the counters to pay their bills, and providing them with the option of UPI payment would make the process easier.

The Court questioned BESCOM's rationale for insisting on cash payments. It directed the electricity supplier to file an affidavit addressing this issue and scheduled the next hearing for August 9.