Telcos move Supreme Court against call drop penalty
Telecom firm moved the Supreme Court against an order by the Delhi HC which directed them to compensate subscribers for call drops
New Delhi: The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) and several telecom companies on Thursday moved the Supreme Court against an order by the Delhi high court which had directed them to compensate subscribers for call drops.
The matter was mentioned before a bench headed by chief justice of India T.S. Thakur, who said it will be heard on Friday.
“We have been asked to comply with Trai’s (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) notification under the Delhi high court’s order by 7 March," said lawyer Kapil Sibal, appearing for COAI.
On 29 February, the Delhi high court had upheld the validity of Trai’s regulation which provided for mandatory compensation to subscribers by telecom service providers for call drops.
COAI, a lobby group of telecom service providers and 21 telecom operators including Bharti Airtel Ltd, Aircel Ltd, Vodafone India Ltd and Idea Cellular Ltd, had sought a stay on the Trai notification.
The court said the telecom regulator was at liberty to implement its decision from 1 January 2016.
Telcos had opposed the notification as a knee-jerk reaction and termed it “arbitrary and without application of mind", while holding that there were various reasons for call drops beyond the control of telecom service providers and that it was impossible to find the exact reason for each call drop.
Stressing that call drops had worsened over time, the regulator had stated that compensation for call drops and steps taken by the authority in this regard had been considered in public interest.
According to Trai’s 16 October notification, telcos would credit ₹ 1 to a user for every call drop, subject to a maximum of ₹ 3 per day. The telcos claimed that additional compensation would cost the companies ₹ 54,000 crore a year.
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