The Bombay High Court issued a notice to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India in a PIL filed to set up an Ombudsman in Telecom
Saturday, October 8, 2016
The Hon'ble Chief
Justice of Bombay High Court issued a notice to the Central Government and
to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India in a Public Interest Litigation filed
in the Year January 2016 by Petitioner Mr. Gansham Ramchandani to set up an
ombudsman in Telecom Sector.
According to the Petitioner’s Advocate Mr. Hitesh Ramchandani the Public Interest Litigation is filed to appoint an ombudsman in Telecom Industry who will be an Independent body to redress and pass orders and penalize the service providers for Complaints and grievances against the Telecom Service providers.
The
Petitioner’s Advocate has stressed the point before The Hon’ble Chief Justice
of Bombay High Court that currently in telecom the redressal tire system is
that the Consumer redresses first to Telecom Service Provider and if not satisfied
then to Appellant Officer of same service Provider. This tier-mechanism of a
call center and the appellate is not independent and it lies within the
authority of the telecom service provider who is a party in the matter. The
Department of Telecommunication only act as a facilitator and just forward the
consumer grievance to the service provider, the Department of Telecommunication
do not give any orders or penalize the service provider for not redressing the
Consumer Grievance as they are not vested with powers to penalize service
provider for not redressing the Grievances. The service provider is at a
discretion to close the complaint received from Department of Telecommunication
without resolving the Consumers Grievances. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of
India don’t entertain and don’t redress individual Telecom consumers
complaints.
According to the Petitioner’s Advocate Mr. Hitesh Ramchandani the Public Interest Litigation is filed to appoint an ombudsman in Telecom Industry who will be an Independent body to redress and pass orders and penalize the service providers for Complaints and grievances against the Telecom Service providers.
The
Petitioner’s Advocate Mr. Hitesh Ramchandani stated to the Bombay High Court that
in the year 2004 TRAI had floated a consultation paper that there is a need to
set up an ombudsman in Telecom Sector but in the year 2009 the Government
decided as to not to set up an Ombudsman in Telecom Sector.
The telecom sector in
India has grown rapidly in last decades. From a subscriber base of around 90
million in March, 2006, the number of telecom subscribers in India reached
around 1.04 billion by June 2016. These subscribers filed approximately 10.23
million complaints just in the Jan-March Quarter in 2016 with the Telecom
Service Providers (TSPs). The complaints were on account of wrong billing,
indifferent or poor quality of service, non-provision of contracted services,
etc.
There is no other sector with
such a mass base of 1 billion Telecom customer. An average consumer probably
has complaints worth Rs 30 or Rs 20 a month. Very small value but large
numbers. Since amount involved in most of the consumer complaints related to
telecom service is very meagre in comparison to the litigation cost and in view
of the time taken by the Consumer Courts/Forums in deciding the case, consumers
in general are not willing to approach the Consumer Courts/Forums for redressal
of their complaints
Currently in India the
Other Sectors such as Banking and Insurance also has an Ombudsman to
immediately redress individual complaints. The RBI (Reserve Bank of India) who
is the Regulatory body of banks had set up an office of Ombudsman in the year
1995, who immediately redresses the Complaints by giving the order and the
order is binding on Consumer as well as to the Banks. The IRDA (Insurance
Regulatory Development Authority of India) had set up an office of ombudsman in
the year 1998 who immediately redresses the Complaints by giving the order and
the order is binding on Consumer as well as to the Insurance service provider.
Australia
had set up an office of the ombudsman in the year 1993 and United Kingdom in
the year 2003 for Telecommunication Sector, to help consumers to resolve their
disputes with their service providers, which they are not able to resolve
through providers normal procedures.
The Next date of
hearing is Scheduled on 18th November 2016.
