SC notice to BSNL on Trai's plea

The Supreme Court today issued notice to state-run telecom major Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) on a petition by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), which had objected the PSU's charging higher tariff from subscribers by way of reducing the pulse rate of each call.

BSNL had earlier got a favourable judgement from telecom tribunal TDSAT in this regard and the same was challenged by Trai.

A Bench headed by Justice B Sudershan Reddy sought reply from BSNL as to why it should be allowed to go ahead with the tariff increase.

Challenging the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal's order that quashed TRAI's directions on the traiff increase, the petitioner said that the judgement had a major impact on consumers as they were forced to pay higher charges as a result of change in the pulse rate from 180 seconds to 45 seconds in each call within six months of the date of their enrollment under the respective tariff plan.

Trai senior counsel Harish Salve and Sanjay Kapur said BSNL had enriched itself duly without any notice to unwary consumers about the reclassification of calls and the consumers, who had not completed six months in their tariff plans, have been forced to pay higher charges.