TELECOM WATCHDOG Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) SECTION 36 of the Telecom Regulatory Authority Act, 1997 (hereinafter referred to as ,,the Act) gives power to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to frame Regulations of the nature specified in the said Section. Exercising powers under that provision read with sub-clause (v) of clause (b) of sub-section (1) of section 11 and clause (c) of sub section (1) of Section 11 of the Act, the TRAI has framed Regulations, known as "The Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference (Sixth Amendment) Regulations, 2011 (hereinafter referred to as the Regulations). Some amendments are made to the earlier Regulations framed in 2010. We are here concerned with amendment at Sl. No. 8 (c) of the said Regulations which reads as under:-

(2.) AS is clear from the reading of the aforesaid amended provision, no Access Provider is permitted to send more than 100 SMS per day, per SIM, which is increased to 200 SMS per day vide Amendment @ 8 th Amendment.

(3.) PRIOR to September 27, 2011 there was no such cap on the SMS which a person can send. However, TRAI found that unrestricted UCC calls and SMSs were interfering with the personal lives of the individuals as often telemarketers would call them up for selling their products. Telemarketing had emerged as one of the simplest and cost efficient tool for marketing of products. A large number of these ,,telemarketing calls and SMSs were unsolicited i.e. the receiving party does not want to receive such calls or messages. Such messages disturb the recipients, intrude into their privacy, and impose a cost in terms of the time and effort. The respondent no.2 had been making several attempts since 2007 to control UCC. For the first time, on June 5, 2007, the respondent issued "the Telecom Unsolicited Commercial Communications Regulations, 2007". However, these regulations were very weak and could not act as deterrent to such UCC calls and SMSs. The penalty for default was meager amount of Rs.500, which was increased to maximum of Rs.5000 for the 1st violation and Rs.20,000 for the 2nd subsequent violations.