In continuation of the subscriber verification issue, Bharti Group has moved the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) against the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) for imposing penalties on two of its companies for alleged violation of subscriber verification norms for its post-paid customers.
Prior to this, DoT had imposed a penalty on Bharti Airtel and Bharti Hexacom for not being able to carry out the process of re-verifying prepaid connections in the Assam and North East circles.
The Bharti Group has requested TDSAT to set aside the demand notices issued by DoT to its companies over the alleged violations of the new subscriber verification norms laid down by DoT on July 20, 2010 for Assam and North East circles.
Following the petition by the Bharti Group, TDSAT has directed DoT to file a reply in response to Bharti Group?s petition and has asked it not take any coercive action against the companies.
Earlier, the Telecom Enforcement Resource and Monitoring (TERM) Cell of DoT had imposed a penalty on Bharti Airtel and Bharti Hexacom along with operators like Vodafone, Dishnet Wireless (Aircel), Reliance Telecom and Idea Cellular. The operators approached TDSAT to waive off the penalties imposed by DoT. However, TDSAT directed operators to pay only 25 per cent of the penalty on connections activated between July 20, 2010 and March 31, 2011 on the basis of photo identity issued by village panchayats and caste and domicile certificate by the state governments.
