TDSAT Dismisses Reliance Plea in Call Routing Case

Reliance Info is planning to appeal to the Supreme Court against the TDSAT order 

Telecom Tribunal TDSAT has dismissed Reliance Infocomm's petition in the call routing case and the company would now have to pay Rs 150 crore as penalty within three days. The penalty had been imposed on Reliance Info by the government for diverting incoming international calls as local. The company is planning to appeal to the Supreme Court against the TDSAT order.

Dismissing Reliance Info's petition, TDSAT said that the company's call routing practices are a threat to national security and a breach of contract.

Even as the matter is likely to land up in the Supreme court, union minister for communication and IT Dayanidhi Maran welcomed the telecom appellate tribunal TDSAT judgment, which dismissed Reliance Infocomm's petition challenging a fine of Rs 150 crore for re-routing international calls as local.

Maran was speaking to the media on the sidelines on the launch of a million lines under cellular service CellOne of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) in Pune and mentioned that TDSAT's judgment vindicated his stand on the issue. "I just heard about it. Our stand has been justified", he said. 

It may be mentioned here that the Telecom Dispute Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) on March 4, 2005 upheld an order of the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) imposing a fine of Rs 150 crore against Reliance Infocomm for passing off international calls as local ones to save on Interconnect charges. The DoT, in its January 17 order, had unambiguously held Reliance Infocomm guilty of breaching license conditions pertaining to Interconnect Usage Charge agreement. 

According to Maran, TDSAT is the ultimate authority to settle telecom related issues and its judgment goes a long way to prove the government's charge. "The DoT always believed that a lot of illegal call routing was being done. The judgment is proof enough", he said. 

However, he avoided a direct reply on TDSAT's apprehensions that the practice resorted by Reliance Infocomm jeopardized the national security. "I am yet to go into the details of the judgment", he remarked.

Maran said the DoT has also set-up vigilance teams to bust the grey call market. Typically, unscrupulous parties have installed small telecom exchanges and then routed national and international calls through 

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). "Our vigilance teams have busted 60 such cases countrywide in recent past", he said.

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