Court seeks response of Trai on call drops plea

The Delhi High Court (HC) sought response of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on Monday on a plea challenging its order that made it mandatory for telecom operators to compensate subscribers for call drops from January 1, 2016.

Trai had directed service providers on October 16 to pay subscribers Rs 1 per call drop experienced on their network subject to a cap of three a day. A Bench of Chief Justice G. Rohini and Justice Jayant Nath issued notice to the sectoral regulator on a plea moved by the operators, who termed the order as mutually contradictory and destructive.

"Since it has to be implemented from January 1, 2016, we will hear the government and pass the order," the Bench said while listing the matter for December 22. Besides, the Cellular Operators Association of India, the Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India and 21 operators, including Vodafone India, Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications, in their plea said that the decision has been issued knowing fully well that laws of physics makes it impossible to provide a hundred-per cent call drop-free network. In the plea, the operators said, "Hold and declare that Trai has no power to adjudicate and award compensation under the provisions of the Trai Act, 1997 (as amended)."

The operators further said that since the subject matter is already covered by a prior and existing quality of service regulation dated March 20, 2009, hence, this is an occupied field. "No clause dealing with compensation even in the licence. On the contrary, as per the licence agreement, the operators are not required to cover the entire service area," the plea added. Issue an appropriate writ striking down and setting aside the Telecom Consumers Protection (Ninth Amendment) Regulation 2015 of October 16, 2015."