Delhi High Court refuses to stay penalty for call drops

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday refused to stay the telecom regulator’s order mandating mobile service providers to compensate subscribers for call drops beginning January 1.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India ( Trai) told the court that it will not take any coercive action against erring telcos until the next date of hearing on January 6.

Additional Solicitor General PS Narasimha, who made the submission on behalf of the regulator before a bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Jayant Nath, however, made it clear that the regulations would come into force from January 1 as was decided.

Cellular Operators Association of India ( COAI), the Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India ( AUSPI) and 21 telecom operators, including Vodafone, Bharti Airtel and Reliance, had approached the court seeking quashing of Trai's October 16 order mandating compensation for call drops as the issue has become rampant.

The regulator ordered service providers to pay subscribers Rs 1 per call drop experienced on their network, subject to a cap of Rs 3 a day per subscriber.

The telecom operators have argued before the court that the Trai regulation is unfair as laws of physics make it impossible to provide a 100 per cent call drop-free network.

They also argued that it is beyond the powers of the telecom regulator to impose such a penalty on telcos. The regulator, though, has claimed the order is well within its powers.