Telecom Minister assures amendment to TRAI Act being examined

Dhirendra TripathiMoneycontrol Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha has assured that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s proposal to amend the TRAI Act was under examination. The minister has given this commitment in a letter to Rajya Sabha member Rajeev Chandrasekhar. Amendment of TRAI Act, particularly with respect to giving the regulator penal powers, assumed significance after the Supreme Court struck down its decision to impose penalty on operators for call drops. The Apex court’s May 11 judgement had termed the directive, "unconstitutional and arbitrary". TRAI had decided to impose a penalty of Re. 1 per call with a cap of Rs. 3 per day on telecom operators for each dropped call. Operators had then approached the Supreme Court against the TRAI order, questioning the authority of TRAI to impose penalties and also arguing that it was not possible to clearly define the reasons for call drops. Subsequent to the Supreme Court order, TRAI Chairman R. S. Sharma had written to the then Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad to seek amendments to the TRAI Act to acquire penal powers. The letter by Sinha, Prasad’s successor, does well to underscore the effort of the government in this regard. “The comprehensive proposal of TRAI for amendment of TRAI Act is under examination,” the Minister wrote in the letter dated December 15, a copy of which was seen by Moneycontrol. Sinha’s letter was in response to Chandrasekhar’s May 26 letter written to Prasad.