Zee Media Bureau
New Delhi: Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi on Thursday defended the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) decision to impose penalty on telecom operators for call drops.
The Attorney General on April 5 had told the Supreme Court that it will call for a meeting with telecom ministry officials and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to discuss the technical papers and possible solutions for call drops.
The Supreme Court on March 17 had asked TRAI to review call drop penalty regulation in view of technical issues. The apex court asked the regulatory body to base their stand after considering the papers dealing with technical aspects of call drops.
Following the SC's order, the regulator said it will comply with the order to consider the amendment of penalty based on technical aspects of call drops.
The apex court bench of Justice Kurian Joseph and Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman had pointed out that nobody has seen technical papers on the day of framing of regulation, adding, "It appears prima facie that TRAI's technical papers, which cite reasons for call drops, were not taken into account while framing the 2015 regulation."
The call drop case was filed after the regulator mandated the telcos to compensate the consumers with Re.1 per call up to 3 dropped calls per day starting from January 2016 to improve the call drop situation. This was unanimously opposed by telcos and they filed a case with the Delhi High Court against TRAI's regulation.
However, after the Delhi High Court upheld TRAI's compensation regulation, telecom operators approached Supreme Court filing a petition challenging the high court order.
With Agency Inputs
