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Call drops: Supreme Court issues notice to telecom regulatory

After an appeal from telcos on Friday, the Supreme Court had agreed to hear their petition on Friday.

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The Supreme Court has set March 10 as the hearing date for the call drops case and has asked the Centre and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to respond to the appeal made by telecom companies.

In the meanwhile, the apex court has issued a notice to TRAI over the telcos' plea challenging the Delhi High Court order for the compensation for call drops.

During the hearing, the SC said, "TRAI has jurisdiction to levy penalty on telecos."

It also said that there was a need to ascertain if call drop was due to telcos fault. 

In the meantime, the SC declined an interim stay on the Delhi HC order upholding Trai's decision, making it mandatory for telcos to compensate subscribers for call drops. 

The SC will take a decision on the matter on March 10.

On Friday, telcos, led by the Unified Telecom Service Providers of India and 21 telecom operators -- the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) -- including Vodafone, Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications, moved the Supreme Court on Thursday challenging the Delhi High Court order which upheld the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (Trai) decision mandating them to compensate subscribers on call drops. The apex court had agreed to hear the petition on Friday.

Representing the telcos, senior advocate Kapil Sibal had sought urgent hearing of the matter from the bench headed by Chief Justice T S Thakur as the telecom regulator is to convene a meeting with the parties over the implementation of the decision by Monday.

The companies requested the court to consider their plea that the Trai regulation on call drops is "ultra vires" or beyond the legal power of the regulator as the Trai Act does not give Trai adjudicatory powers and hence it cannot grant compensation.

Further, the Trai regulation is also ultra vires the Telegraph Act of 1885 under which mobile companies are licensed wherein 100% coverage of the licensed geography is not required. Hence, call drops emanating from these areas should not be subject to compensation, they argued.

The COAI said, "It is impossible to identify all the reasons for call drops and hence, the implementation of Trai order is not feasible".

(With agency inputs)

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