Sixteen PDB courts, formed exclusively to deal with cases over outstanding bills filed under the Electricity Act, 1910, have been falling far short of their target and purpose. Under this law, a person found guilty can be sentenced to imprisonment or fined or both.

"We are not getting the desired results from the PDB courts, as a huge number of cases have piled up," said PDB Secretary SM Faisal Alam, who is also in charge of supervising the courts.

"There should have been fewer number of pending cases. After all, these courts are dealing with just one type of litigation under only one law," Alam observed.

General consumers -- excluding the Dhaka Electric Supply Authority (Desa) and other bulk consumers -- now owe the PDB Tk 1,064 crore in bills, which is increasing every year.

Yet, as far back as in 1988, the government formed separate magistrate courts to deal with the PDB cases to ensure that these cases do not get lost in the quagmire of millions of other cases at lower courts.

Before 1988, general courts used to deal with these cases and most of them would remain unresolved. To bring order back to the crisis-infested PDB, the government formed 16 exclusive courts by 1994.

These PDB courts can clear 14,000 cases a year at most, but every year there are about 4,000 to 5,000 more cases that they are unable to resolve, sources said.

As a result, there were 43,000 cases pending with the PDB courts in 1999-2000, according to official records. Next year, the number went up to 48,000 and in 2001 to 51,000. In the 2002-2003 fiscal year, the number of such pending cases stood at 56,728 and at the end of the first four months of the current fiscal year the number has shot up to 60,000.

Most of the pending cases are shelved in Chittagong North and South courts of the PDB. Out of the 60,000 unresolved cases, these two courts have more than 26,000.

The other PDB courts that receive more cases than they can handle are those in Tangail, Khulna, Rangpur, Pabna, Jessore, Faridpur, Noakhali, Comilla, Mymensingh, Barisal, Dinajpur, Rajshahi, Sylhet and Bogra.

Apart from bringing the power thieves to book, another goal of these courts was to augment revenue collection. A smooth and just legal system was supposed to drive consumers to behave appropriately and pay their bills regularly, PDB officials said. But these courts failed to project a strong image due to a number of reasons.

"Under the present system, the PDB courts issue warrants through police offices concerned. But the police offices put electricity-related cases low on their priority lists," said a PDB official. He cited an example: "Last year, police offices in Bogra kept 1,162 warrants issued by the PDB courts pending."

This is not the only handicap of the PDB courts. As per the rule, no-one below the rank of an assistant engineer can file a case. But, the PDB has a scarcity of assistant engineers and their frequent transfers leave many suits deadlocked.

There is also a shortage of magistrates. Again, when a magistrate is transferred, his replacement may join many months later. For instance, the Barisal PDB court does not have a magistrate since April last year. Between 1997 and 2000, there were no magistrate at the courts in Noakhali, Comilla, Barisal, Jessore and Tangail.

The PDB authorities also appear to be reluctant in directing the courts. This is reflected in the fact that although the PDB is supposed to organise a meeting with the magistrates of these 16 courts every three months, it actually held only one in the last two and a half years.