The Telecom Disputes Settlement & Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) has not given its judgement on Bharti Airtel’s appeal against the Rs 500 million penalty imposed on it by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) for allegedly camouflaging the calling-line identification (CLI) facility while making promotional business calls to non-Airtel customers.
A TDSAT bench headed by Justice S.B. Sinha, chairman, TDSAT, pointed out that the Supreme Court had clearly stated that if the operator had camouflaged the calls, it counted as a violation.
He also said that Airtel was not expected to provide call data records to verify the facts to DoT. He added that evidence of tampering were present.
In its defence, Bharti Airtel had said that DoT had imposed the penalty on it without issuing a show-cause notice. The operator also said that it was still in talks with the Telecom Enforcement Resources and Monitoring Cell (TERM) while DoT imposed the penalty.
In response, the tribunal commented that only DoT was authorised to impose a penalty and not TERM.
