TRAI’s call drop rule a knee-jerk reaction: Telcos to High Court

Cellular operators on Monday told the Delhi high court that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) call drop compensation regulation was a “knee-jerk reaction”, which penalised them without proving any wrong-doing.

Advocate Harish Salve, appearing for telecom firms, made the submission before a Bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Jayant Nath, which will start hearing arguments of TRAI defending its decision, on Tuesday. The Cellular Operators Association of India, the Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India and 21 telecom operators, have challenged TRAI’s October 16, 2015, rule mandating them to pay consumers one rupee per call drop experienced on their networks, subject to a cap of Rs 3 a day. Terming the regulation as “arbitrary and whimsical”, Salve said providing relief to the consumers amounted to interfering with the companies’ tariff structure and this could be done only by an order and not a regulation.