In a strategic win for Indian telecom watchdog TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) and common people of India, the honourable Delhi High Court has dismissed the plea of Indian telecom operators and ordered them to compensate each and every subscriber for the first three call drops.
With this, TRAI’s regulation, making telecom operator to compensate its customers by one rupee for each call drop to a maximum three call drops a day becomes effective from January 1, 2016.
A Delhi High Court bench headed by Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Jayant Nath has dismissed the petition filed by Cellular Operators Association of India, a body of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India and 21 telecom operators including the top telecom players Airtel, Vodafone, Idea and Reliance.
“We uphold the validity of (TRAI’s) regulation. There is no dispute about the power of TRAI to make a regulation under section 36 of the Act. The impugned regulation has been made in exercise of the power conferred under the Act, keeping in mind the paramount interest of the consumer. It is also relevant to note that the regulations do not penalize every call drop but is limited only to three call drops a day per consumer.” the Court observed in its 39-page verdict.
Earlier, TRAI has issued an amendment where telecom operator needs to credit its customers by one rupee for each call drop limited to maximum three call drops a day. The main highlights from the amendment include –
- One rupee compensation for every call drop
- Compensation limited to maximum 3 call drops per day
- Compensation credited to Prepaid users main balance and Postpaid users next bill
- User who initiates a voice call will only get the compensation