SC notice to RCom on MTNL's plea

The Supreme Court today issued notice to Anil Ambani-owned Reliance Communications (RCom) on a petition by MTNL alleging that the private mobile services provider had tampered with the process of deciphering the point of origin of a call.

MTNL has sought the transfer of RCom's petition pending before the telecom tribunal and clubbing it with another plea pending before the Supreme Court.

A bench headed by Justice S B Sinha sought explanation from RCom as to why its pleas, involving similar issues, pending before the Telecom Disputes Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT), should not be transferred to the apex court.

On May 1, the apex court had also issued notice to RCom on a similar plea filed by BSNL.

The state-run telecom major alleged that Reliance Infocomm (now called Reliance Communications) had tampered with the calling line identification (CLI) in an unlawful manner.

CLI is the telephone number of the subscriber who makes the call and is the only method of deciphering the point of origin of any call.

MTNL had alleged international and long-distance calls, involving higher access deficit charges (ADC) to be paid to it, were unlawfully hidden and masked by local numbers by RCom.

The petitions of MTNL and BSNL said that the Department of Telecom, after issuing showcause notice, had imposed a penalty of Rs 150 crore on RCom.

RCom had challenged it before the tribunal, which in March 2005 had dismissed the private service provider's plea, holding it guilty of breaching the licence conditions, the state-owned telecom company said, adding that the TDSAT had also imposed a penalty of Rs 25,000 on the company.

While RCom had moved the apex court challenging the TDSAT order, BSNL and MTNL had issued disconnection notice to Reliance for not paying penalty.

However, the petition pointed out that RCom had paid significant amounts to BSNL following orders passed by the apex court in other proceedings and the payments on account of CLI stood paid.

BSNL had also alleged that it was deprived of crores of rupees on this count and RCom was under obligation to pay under the regulations framed by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.

RCom had filed another petition in the tribunal seeking a refund of Rs 260 crore paid by it to MTNL on account of alleged unlawful tampering of CLI.

MTNL said that RCom's plea of 2005 pending before the apex court was a related one and will have a bearing on the proceedings initiated by the private firm before the tribunal as both the petitions involve the issue of CLI tampering.