Respond on Vodafone’s challenge to Trai penalty: HC to Centre

The Delhi high court on Thursday issued a notice of impleadment to the ministry of communication and information technology on a petition moved earlier by Vodafone Mobile Services, challenging a Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) recommendation to impose a ~1,050 crore penalty on the telecom major for failures to provide points of inter-connection with other mobile service providers.

The October 21 Trai recommendation to the department of telecommunications for levy of the ~50-crore penalty in each of the 21 circles, comes on the backdrop of a complaint by Reliance Jio, alleging Vodafone’s refusal to comply with license conditions as prescribed. Following the complaint, the telco had been issued a show cause notice for non-compliance on September 27 and asked to respond to it within 10 days.

Vodafone, however, has alleged that Trai held a meeting before the expiry of the 10-day time period and without allowing the telecom provider to defend itself in person, as required by law. The petition has also mentioned that the proposed penalty is not in accordance with the Quality of Service regulations, according to which a service provider can be fined a maximum of ~50,000 for failures to meet the service requirements and seeks the quashing of the recommendation on these grounds.

Opposing these contentions, the counsel for Trai highlighted before court that Vodafone had been provided ample opportunities to reply to the show cause notice and provide the data as requested.