Airtel had disconnected incoming and outgoing calls on the number of its subscriber, Delhi resident JC Shivran, on the ground that he had not re-verified his contact details.
Telecom major Airtel has been directed by a consumer forum here to pay Rs 15,000 to a subscriber as compensation for "harassing" him by abruptly disconnecting call services on his number for 24 days.
Airtel had disconnected incoming and outgoing calls on the number of its subscriber, Delhi resident J C Shivran, on the ground that he had not re-verified his contact details.
"The action taken by the opposite party (Airtel) of disconnection of the call facilities on the complainant’s (Shivran) mobile phone appears to be unjustified... The action of abrupt disconnection of incoming and outgoing facilities does not appear to be proper and reasonable.
"Undoubtedly, the complainant has suffered from mental and physical harassment for which he is entitled to be reasonably compensated. We, therefore, direct the opposite party to pay Rs 10,000 to him towards compensation for his mental and physical harassment along with Rs 5,000 as cost of litigation," the South West District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum said.
The bench presided by Narendra Kumar, while directing the telecom major to pay the amount, said "reasonable time should have been given to the complainant for submission of the Airtel Prepaid Enrollment Form (APEF) form and requisite documents without disconnecting the facilities".
Shivran had in his complaint against Airtel alleged the telecom service provider had disconnected the call services on his number despite his having submitted all required documents.
He had said he had obtained the pre-paid number in 2003 on the basis of his allotment letter for a government flat and in 2007 when Airtel had sought re-verification he had suggested that the telecom company depute its field staff for verifying his residential or official address.
Instead, while he was out of station he had received a message that incoming calls on his number were disconnected, whereupon he had submitted all the documents at the nearest Airtel office, Shivran had said.
Shivran had said he had to again submit the documents when he returned to Delhi, after which Airtel took three more days to re-activate call services as against their assurance that services will be resumed within 24 hours.
Airtel had said the re-verification was conducted for all pre-paid numbers pursuant to a 2006 direction of the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology.
In its defence against the allegation by Shivran of abrupt diconnection of call facilities, the telecom service provider contended incoming calls were restricted on his number as he had not submitted the APEF form along with the address proof.
The forum, however, rejected the contention of the telecom major saying that "in spite of the receipt of the APEF form and requisite documents, the incoming and outgoing call facilities of the mobile phone was discontinued by the opposite party and it remained discontinued for 24 days, out of which it remained discontinued for three days after submitting the requirements second time."
The bench, also comprising members, Mona Sahni and Zahid Husain, also said that "in this age of communication, the opposite party should have developed a device of re-verification without disconnecting the facilities.
"The suggestion of re-verification given by the complainant appears to be reasonable i.e by visiting the government residential accommodation of the complainant."
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