SC rejects TRAI appeal plea on incoming calls

NEW DELHI, NOV 1: The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a petition by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) challenging the Delhi ...

int(3)

NEW DELHI, NOV 1: The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a petition by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) challenging the Delhi High Court stay on the implementation of free incoming calls for cellular phone users under calling party pays (CPP) regime.

"We do not think it is appropriate to interfere with the order of the High Court or in the proceedings there as the matter is still at a preliminary stage," a division bench comprising Justice B N Kirpral and Justice S Rajendra Babu said while dismissing TRAI’s petition.

The TRAI had announced the provision of free incoming calls to cellular phone users through CPP from November 1 but the same was challenged in the High Court by the Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) and another public interest litigation which alleged that the MTNL was going to lose substantial revenue under the new regime.

Story continues below this ad

Under CPP, the cellular phone user would pay no money on receiving a call from the public service telephone network (PSTN), known as fixed telephone.Instead, the PSTN user would pay Rs 3.30 per call to a cellphone user. Of the Rs 3.30, MTNL would get a share of Rs 0.90 and the cellular operators would get Rs 2.40.

Under the existing arrangement, the MTNL gets Rs 1.10 for each call made from a PSTN line and a cellular user is required to pay about Rs 12 for receiving a call of three minutes duration.

The High Court on October 28 had stayed the proposed CPP regime saying the TRAI order "is a hostile discrimination" against Department of Telecom (DOT) and MTNL.

The bench before hearing counsel for TRAI Ashok Desai observed "it is very strange on the part of the TRAI to come before Supreme Court at this stage."

Story continues below this ad

However, Desai pointed out that the TRAI order was consumer friendly and was going to benefit a large number of cellular phone owners as the incoming calls were going to be free of cost.

He said it was wrong on the part of the High Court to stay the order of a regulatory authority as the apex court had time and again held that courts shouldnot interfere in matters pertaining to fixation of tariff.

"The fixation of tariff in commercial matters and matter of public interest were quite different," the bench observed and said as the High Court has fixed November 16 for further hearing on the matter, TRAI should point out these anomalies there.

Appearing for MTNL, senior advocate C S Vaidyanathan contended that corporation stand to lose huge chunk of its revenue as it would receive only Rs 0.90 as against the present Rs 1.10 per call made from fixed telephones (PSTN) to cellular phones.

Story continues below this ad

The CPP regime was announced by TRAI on September 17, it was gazetted on September 21 and was to come into effect from November 1.

The High Court had also restrained TRAI from taking any penal or coercive action against the government agencies and the operators for not implementing the new scheme.