A Telecom Disputes Settlement & Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) bench headed by Justice S.B. Sinha has dismissed Reliance Communication (RCOM)?s plea challenging the penalty and disconnection notices issued against it by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL). The incumbent had filed the case on grounds of wrong routing of international calls in the Karnataka circle in 2003.
Sinha said that the impugned bill raised in 2005 was related to calls made in 2003. However, RCOM had approached the TDSAT only in 2010 and hence it was not entitled to challenge it.
In 2005, BSNL had presented RCOM with two bills of Rs 15 million and Rs 42 million for tampering with the caller line identification facility and passing off international calls as local ones. It also issued a disconnection notice to the company in March 27, 2007.
According to the rules, BSNL had imposed the highest slab of international calls for such unauthorised calls, which was challenged by RCOM before the TDSAT. The tribunal observed that the company was not pursuing its case in a bona fide manner by not providing call data records of its point of interconnections (PoI) despite several earlier orders.
