BSNL can impose max penalty on RCOM for masked calls: SC

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday upheld BSNL’s right to impose the maximum penalty on the Anil Ambani group firm Reliance Communications (RCOM) for wrongly routing international calls through the state-run telco’s network as local connections by tampering with Calling Line Identification (CLI) numbers.

RCOM, India’s secondlargest mobile phone operator, slumped to a record low on BSE after the apex court order. Its shares fell 2.2% to Rs 128, the lowest since listing in March 2006. The BSE sensex gained 1.4% on Monday.

A three-judge bench headed by the Chief Justice S H Kapadia said that as per BSNL’s interconnect agreement with RCOM, the staterun firm had the right to levy a penalty on all calls routed by the R-ADAG firm through its network, including local calls, based on the highest call rate slab.

The Supreme Court also held that by masking international call as local, RCOM had tried to destroy the “principles of level playing field” and BSNL has the right to recover its losses.

The apex court also set aside the earlier order of the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) in favour of RCOM, saying such violations come under “strict liability” , where the PSU can impose penalty on each and every call from their Point of Interconnection (PoI).

“We set aside the impugned judgment and remit the matter to TDSAT to decide the matter de novo in accordance with the law laid down,” said the bench, which also comprised Justices K S Radhakrishnan and Swatanter Kumar.
TDSAT had on May 24, 2010, set aside the bills raised by BSNL and said that Clause 6.4.6 of the Interconnect Agreement between RCOM and the PSU was penal in nature and, therefore, the PSU cannot impose penalty on all calls routed by RCOM through its PoI.