SIMHA Vs. BHARTI AIRTEL LIMITED

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The complainant was using a mobile connection No. 9916383919 issued to him by Vodafone. He claims to have received a telephone call, offering better tariff plan to him if he shifted from Vodafone to Airtel. The complainant therefore, shared his documents with an executive of the Airtel and was issued a post-paid SIM card bearing No.8991000900614428103U. He was also told that his mobile No. 9916383919 would be ported from Vodafone to Airtel within seven days. The complainant cleared the outstanding dues of the Vodafone against the connection Vodafone had provided to him and received a SIM card from Airtel on 24.01.2018. On 26.01.2018, he was informed that the validation of his documents had been completed and sent to Vodafone. On 31.1.2018, he was informed that his porting request had been validated by Vodafone and the number would be ported into Airtel on the same day. He was also instructed to call 59059 to verify his details once his mobile displayed 'no network'.

(2.) The case of the complainant is that the Vodafone network dropped from his mobile phone on 31.1.2018, but when he inserted the Airtel SIM card, the network could not be found despite his repeatedly restarting the mobile phone. He visited the Airtel store on the next day and another SIM was issued to him, while informing him that the previous SIM card issued to him had wrong SIM number and that actual SIM No. was 8991000900566320159U. Thereafter, yet another SIM card bearing No.8991000901207695181U was issued to him. He again visited the Airtel store and explained his problem to them. They assured to get the card activated within 48 hours and finally issued another SIM card to him bearing No.8991000900033955140U. However, SIM also could not get activated despite repeated efforts made by the complainant. Thereafter, he was contacted by an Airtel executive, asked him to collect SIM card from another Airtel Store by applying for a duplicate SIM. The complainant however, insisted on the duplicate SIM being delivered at his place.

(3.) The case of the complainant is that none of the SIM cards provided to him could be activated despite several efforts made by him. On 7.2.2018, he was informed by the Nodal Officer of Airtel that his SIM was active. When he contacted the Customer Care of Airtel, he was informed that the SIM was activated on 05.2.2018. The complainant alleges that the SIM had been activated somewhere-else. Eventually he was informed that the outgoing service on his mobile number had been temporarily restricted effective from 8.2.2018 on his request and he could obtain a new SIM by visiting Airtel store with his Aadhaar card etc. Thus, the SIM, according to the complainant, was activated without his consent. He declined to apply for a duplicate SIM as was suggested to him Airtel. This is also his case that when he searched on the Internet for the Airtel executive, who had come to him, he found a profile with objectionable links.