The Supreme Court on Wednesday struck down a TRAI regulation that made it mandatory for telecom companies to compensate subscribers for call drops holding it as “arbitrary, unreasonable and non-transparent.”
“We have held the impugned regulation to be ultra vires, arbitrary, unreasonable and non-transparent,” a Bench comprising Justices Kurian Joseph and R.F. Nariman said.
The apex court passed the judgment on the appeals filed by COAI, a body of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India and 21 telecom operators, including Vodafone, Bharti Airtel and Reliance, challenging the Delhi High Court order which had upheld TRAI’s decision.
The telecom companies had told the apex court that the entire sector is under huge debt and they have to pay big price for spectrum, therefore zero tolerance on call drops should not be imposed on them.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) had told the apex court that it would take action against the telcos for call drops to protect the interest of consumers.
Earlier this year, the Delhi High Court 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.
