Breaking: Supreme Court strikes down TRAI’s call drop penalty [Read judgment]

The Supreme Court today struck down the regulations framed by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) which prescribed a penalty for call drops on telecom operators..In the judgment delivered by Justices Kurian Joseph and Rohinton Fali Nariman, the Court held that the regulations were arbitrary in nature..The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) had assailed the Telecom Consumers Protection (Ninth Amendment) Regulations, 2015 which had made it mandatory for telecom operators to compensate subscribers for the first three calls dropped per day at the rate of Rs.1 per dropped call..The COAI had contended that the regulations are arbitrary and violative of Article 14. It had also challenged the jurisdiction of TRAI to enact the regulations, stating that,.“Impugned Regulation which fastens strict liability on the Petitioners without fault (for no fault) is arbitrary and violative of Article 14 of the Constitution as it compels service providers to do the ‘impossible’, is against the law of physics and grants compensation even for the first call drop.”.The COAI had submitted that TRAI itself had, by way of Quality Service Regulations of 2008, prescribed the call drop benchmark at 2%, and not 100% faultless coverage. It had, therefore, contended that the current regulations are contrary to the existing regulations which continue to occupy the field..It had further submitted that TRAI failed to take into account the fact the call drop could be due to a variety of reasons including external factors which the TRAI and High Court have failed to account for..Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal appeared for the petitioners, whereas Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi appeared for TRAI and the Department of Telecommunications..The Delhi High Court had upheld the TRAI regulations in February, prompting an appeal by Cellular operators to the Supreme Court..Read the judgment below.