HC seeks Centre, TRAI's response on call drops

The Delhi High Court on Monday sought a response from the centre and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on a plea by telecom operators for a stay on TRAI's compensation policy for call drops, under which a rupee will be credited to the mobile users' account for every call drop (restricted to three per day) starting January 2016.

A division bench of Chief Justice G. Rohini and Justice Jayant Nath asked the Centre and TRAI to file their response by December 22nd based on the plea of two telecom industry bodies, Cellular Operators Association of India and Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India.

Companies termed the order of TRAI as contradictory and destructive and sought quashing of the October 16th order mandating services provider to pay subscribers Re. 1 per call drop experienced on their network, subject to a cap of three a day.

They said that the TRAI does not have the power to grant compensation to end-subscribers under the TRAI Act and the decision to grant compensation is "without authority of law, without jurisdiction and is illegal".