Retired High Court Chief Justice seeks Rs 9,900 cr penalty on Airtel, Vodafone, Idea

IANS 27 September 2016

Economy & Nation

Justice B.C. Patel, a retired Chief Justice of the Delhi and the Jammu and Kashmir High Courts, has sought a penalty of Rs 9,900 crore to be imposed on Airtel, Vodafone and Idea collectively for their "gross violation" of licencing terms and conditions.

In a letter to Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha and Comptroller and Auditor General Shashi Kant Sharma, Justice Patel said he has been reading about the anti-competitive behaviour of incumbent telecom operators vis a vis Reliance Jio.

"Having studied this matter in detail, I am convinced that there is a clear case of anti-customer and anti-competitive actions being taken by these operators, which must be stopped at all cost," the letter said.

The letter said the operators were not providing adequate points of interconnection to Reliance Jio, resulting by in a failure of over 75 percent in terms of calls made from the new entrant's network to theirs.

A retired judge's recommendation is like any other citizen's plea. It has no legal basis and amounts to only an opinion, no matter how erudite. Despite several attempts, Justice Patel could not be reached for comment.

Calls and e-mails to Airtel, Vodafone and Idea remained unanswered.

Justice Patel said Airtel, Vodafone and Idea are also refusing mobile number portability to their subscribers to migrate to the network of the new entrant.

The retired judge -- based on a scrutiny of the various relevant clauses of the licencing agreements and quality of service parameters -- recommended a penalty of Rs 3,300 crore on each of the three operators.

"In my opinion, this is a clear case of continuing violation of the licence terms and even if they were to stop this now, they would still be liable for this penalty for violations already committed so far."

The letter also sought the amount to be submitted into a consumer welfare fund to spread awareness about their rights in this age.

In the past few weeks, Reliance Jio has been engaged in a pitched battle for interconnection and mobile number portability with the three incumbents.

Airtel Vodafone and Idea have maintained that such points have been enhanced and adequate, while Jio has said its subscribers still face as many as 12 crore call failures a day while dialing into their networks.

Disclaimer: Information, facts or opinions expressed in this news article are presented as sourced from IANS and do not reflect views of Moneylife and hence Moneylife is not responsible or liable for the same. As a source and news provider, IANS is responsible for accuracy, completeness, suitability and validity of any information in this article.

Comments

User

Dipakkumar J Shah

8 years ago

What penalty should be taken for Allowing Illegal Payment of Dividend , Out Of capital,Mere Book Entry of Profit , fake entry of profit entered in to accounts and also declared dividend by Ratnamani Engineering Limited In a case Came Up Before Him in 1994 and did not heard at all. Judgments , irrelevant to the case, Kartikey V Morgan Stanely case and other , where Kartikey was not at all Member of Morgan Stanely. Without serving notice to Company passed the order !!! What business he did ? Not at all even in Review Application heard in chamber is not found at all in Hon. High Court of Gujarat? The Order in Appeal from order was in open court was Just saying Dismissed. But when order was dictated and put on record after 20 days on record it was running in to 3 to 4 pages???What kind of Business he did can be understood.