Chennai: The Madras HC has declined to stay the operation of the Regulations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India relating to fixation of access facilitation charges payable by Indian International Telecommunication companies to Cable Landing Stations. By the said regulations, the charges of cable landing stations were reduced to 1/10th which ultimately would benefit the internet users. Concurring with the submission of counsel appearing for Trai, a division bench declined to pass any interim order on the appeals filed by Tata Telecommunication Ltd, which owns 9 CLS and Bharti Airtel, which owns 4 CLS, against an order of a single judge, which dismissed their petitions, challenging three Regulations of Trai.
The bench said having gone through the various provisions of law as also the amendment made to the Trai Act and also taking into consideration the financial implication involved in the matter and in the light of the contentions advanced by senior counsel for the parties (P.Chidambaram for Tata Telecommunication, P.S.Raman for Bharti Airtel and Wilson for TRAI), this court was of the considered view that the matter has got wider ramifications both on the perspective of the consumers as also the department on the financial aspect, and therefore, it would be wholly unsafe to pass any interim orders at this point of time. Further, the amendment to the Trai Act being of recent origin, the provisions with regard to any legislative defect in the said enactment with regard to drafting or the interpretation to be attached to any of the provisions of the said enactment requires to be dealt with in depth so that a proper and definite judicial interpretation could be given to the said provisions, the bench added.
