Ludhiana, Nov. 24 -- Highlighting yet another alarming case of faulty billing practices, the Punjab electricity ombudsman has come down heavily on the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) for issuing an inflated electricity bill (demand notice) of Rs.12.82 lakh to a Ludhiana based restaurant owner Ankit Aggarwal, after allowing a defective electricity meter to run unchecked for nearly six months. According to Ombudsman, Aggarwal's electricity meter had stopped recording readings properly in June 2024. Despite this, PSPCL failed to replace the faulty device within the mandatory 10 to 15 days as required under the Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC) guidelines. Instead, the utility continued to generate bills based on the malfunctioning meter, causing months of irregular billing. The issue came to the light when Aggarwal repeatedly lodged complaints regarding unusual billing patterns and the absence of accurate meter readings. These complaints prompted PSPCL staff to conduct a physical inspection of the meter, which confirmed that it was indeed defective. However, it was only in December 2024, nearly six months after the problem first surfaced, when the faulty meter was finally replaced. During this entire period, Aggarwal continued paying the average monthly bills sent by PSPCL, assuming them to be correct and reflecting actual consumption. The problem escalated after the defective meter was removed. After this, PSPCL retrieved the stored readings from the faulty device and treated them as accurate, despite the known malfunction. Using this data, the department recalculated Aggarwal's consumption and claimed that more than 1.5 lakh units had remained "unbilled" during the period when the meter was not functioning properly....