Call drops: SC agrees to hear telcos' plea against HC order

The Supreme Court today agreed to hear a plea of two cellular operator associations challenging Delhi High Court order upholding TRAI's decision making it mandatory for them to compensate subscribers for call drops from January 1, 2016.
The plea of the associations was mentioned before a bench of Chief Justice T S Thakur seeking urgent hearing on the matter.
The bench also comprising Justice U U Lalit asked the associations "Why don't you correct the system?"
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the telecom associations, said that this matter required urgent hearing as Delhi HC has upheld the TRAI order, after which the bench agreed to hear the plea tomorrow.

The high court had, earlier this week, upheld the October 16, 2015 RPT 2015 decision of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) making it mandatory for cellular operators to pay consumers one rupee per call drop experienced on their networks, subject to a cap of Rs 3 a day.
The court order came while dismissing a batch of petitions filed by Cellular Operators Association of India, a body of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India and 21 telecom operators, including Vodafone, Bharti Airtel and Reliance.

The high court had said that it had not stayed TRAI's notification since filing of the writ petition, therefore the telecom regulator is at liberty to implement its decision January 1, 2016 onwards.

The court had said that the regulation was made by TRAI "keeping in mind the paramount interest of the consumer".
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) had
earlier told the apex court that it will take action against the Telcos for call drops to protect the interest of consumers as these service providers are not willing to compensate them.
The regulatory body had told the court that it has to safeguard 100 crore telecom subscribers and if companies agree to compensate call drops with equal number of free calls to consumers without pre-conditions then it is open to re- consider its direction imposing penalty on them.

It had also told the court that a "cartel" of 4-5 telecom firms having a billion subscribers are making Rs 250 crore a day but not making investments on their network to improve services to check call drops.
The Delhi High Court had early this year upheld the October 16, 2015 decision of TRAI, making it mandatory for cellular operators to pay consumers one rupee per call drop experienced on their networks, subject to a cap of Rs 3 a day.