The cellular operators are not liable to compensate the loss suffered by subscribers due to call drops as per the Regulations of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday.
Giving this ruling a Bench of Justices Kurian Joseph and Rohinton Nariman set aside a Delhi High Court judgment upholding the TRAI Regulation. We would exhort Parliament to take up this issue and frame a legislation along the lines of the US Administrative Procedure Act (with certain well defined exceptions) by which all subordinate legislation is subject to a 94 Page 95 transparent process by which due consultations with all stakeholders are held.
Writing the judgement Justice Nariman said, “It is clear that the service provider is made to pay for call drops that may not be attributable to his fault, and the consumer receives compensation for a call drop that may be attributable to the fault of the consumer himself, and that makes the Impugned Regulation a regulation framed without intelligent care and deliberation.”
