New Delhi: Former telecom minister and eminent lawyer Kapil Sibal on Thursday appeared before the Supreme Court to challenge a Delhi High Court that asked telecom companies to pay compensation to mobile users for call drops.
“There is no system in world where there is zero call drop. Upto two percent call drop is acceptable under TRAI regulator,” Sibal told the apex court. He also informed that Columbia is the only country which imposes a penalty on call drops.
The apex court had earlier issued notices to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and the Centre to give their responses to the plea forwarded by telecom companies on call drops.
The move came after the apex court heard a petition filed by two cellular operator associations, challenging the Delhi High Court’s order which upheld the TRAI’s mandatory decision to make cellular operators pay consumers Re. one per call drop experienced on their networks.
The Supreme Court has so far not offered any relief to the telecoms in the call drop case as it strictly refused to grant an interim stay on the TRAI notification.
Earlier, the Delhi High Court had said the TRAI’s regulation mandated only compensating the calling consumer not the receiver.
The TRAI had told the high court that consumers have a right to get compensated for call drops. They said this was different from the quality of service guidelines that cellular service providers have to follow under the licence conditions.
