Reliance Jio fired a fresh salvo at the cellular operators body Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) alleging that its rules including voting norms are “overwhelmingly biased and lopsided” and framed to serve the “vested” interests of three operators — Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea.
Jio — currently engaged in a bitter war of words with incumbent players over the interconnect issue — has also sought an overhaul of COAI norms claiming that the “current voting mechanism does not accommodate the democratic principles of reasonableness, fairness, accountability and transparency”.
Jio alleged that the body’s voting rights are “skewed” in favour of dominant operators “giving them the absolute control to influence any or all of the decisions of the association”. The voting norms of the COAI would abysmally fall foul of the Competition Law for perpetrating anti-competitive activities, it added.
“RJIL seeks a thorough overhaul and amendment of COAI regulations and COAI processes by appointing a committee consisting of three retired Judges of the Supreme Court of India to make sure that both fall in line with fundamental democratic principles of reasonableness, fairness, accountability and transparency including with provisions for adequate measures to prevent any abuse in future,” Jio said in a letter to COAI.
Reliance Jio attacked the voting rules of COAI saying that the incumbent dominant operators or IDOs command 68 per cent of the total votes in COAI.
