The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) has dismissed the fine imposed by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on Reliance Communications for an alleged delay in the submission of data and customer application forms (CAF) , say news reports.
It has also directed DoT to refund the penalty of Rs 15.1 million deposited by the operator within the next four weeks.
As per TDSAT’s ruling, DoT has wrongly imposed a fine on RCOM on the grounds of a delay in submission of data and CAF of its subscribers. TDSAT set aside the impugned demand notices and other orders rejecting the representations of the petitioner.
In June 2007, DoT had issued a circular, asking operators to provide databases with this information until the last day of the previous month, as well as the CAF.
However, RCOM could not submit the required data for the month of May 2009 for which DoT sent it a reminder. Subsequently, RCOM filed the required details before the DoT’s Telecom Enforcement, Resource and Monitoring (TERM) cell. However, TERM returned the files to RCOM because of the delay in submission of the same.
Subsequently, it asked RCOM to pay a penalty for the same. However, TDSAT was of the opinion that as per the circular, operators are to be given 10 days time for submitting CAFs after receiving a CD containing the data.
