TRAI asked to respond to plea challenging call drop ruling

The Delhi High Court on Monday sought response of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on a plea challenging its tariff order making it mandatory for cellular operators to compensate subscribers for call drops from January 1.

A bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Jayant Nath issued notice to the TRAI on a plea moved by cellular operators, who termed the order as mutually contradictory and destructive.

“Since it has to be implemented from January 1, 2016, we will hear the government and pass the order,” the bench said while listing the matter for December 22.

The operators have sought quashing of the TRAI's October 16 ruling mandating service providers to pay subscribers Re 1 per call drop experienced on their network, subject to a cap of three a day.

Besides Cellular Operators Association of India, the association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India and 21 telecom operators, including Vodafone, Bharti Airtel and Reliance in their plea said, the decision has been issued knowing fully well that laws of physics makes it impossible to provide a hundred per cent call drop-free network.

Issue an appropriate writ striking down and setting aside the Telecom Consumers Protection (Ninth Amendment) Regulation 2015 of October 16, 2015.