New Delhi: Today, i.e. on Thursday 3rd March, 2016 the honourable Supreme Court of India has decided to hear the plea of Two cellular operator associations, where the decision of the Delhi High Court upholding decision of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India- TRAI making it mandatory for them to compensate subscribers for call drops from First day of January, 2016.
The Apex court has decided to hear such plea which was preferred by the Two Cellular operator associations. And in the plea of such associations, the claim of urgent hearing on the matter, was found mentioned.
The concerned bench of Apex Court, comprising of Chief Justice of India- T. S. Thakur and Justice- U. U. Lalit asked the associations as to why they cannot correct the system?
The Telecom associations are represented by the senior advocate- Kapil Sibal who contented before the court that the matter is requiring urgent hearing, because the High Court of Delhi has upheld the decision of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India- TRAI. Considering the facts and circumstances of the matter, the Apex Court’s concerned bench has decided to hear the plea tomorrow.
The decision dated 16th October, 2016 of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India- TRAI, where the payment of the consumers one rupee per call drop experienced on the networks of the cellular operators has been made mandatory, subject to cap of Rs. 3 a day, for the Cellular operators, was upheld by the high Court earlier this week.
Moreover, such decision was brought while dismissing a batch of petitions which were preferred by the Cellular Operators Association of India, a body of Unified Telecom Service providers of India and Twenty- One Telecom Operators, like Reliance, Vodafone and Bharti Airtel.
Moreover, as per the decision of the High Court, it had not stayed the notification of TRAI since the filing of writ petition, as such the telecom regulator is at liberty to implement the decision.
Contending the action of the TRAI and ‘knee- jerk reaction’, the telecom operators had moved to the High Court seeking quashing of TRAI’s regulations. As per their contentions, such action is penalizing them without proving any wrong.
Adv. Faim Khalilkhan Pathan