In February last year, the Department of Telecommunications (DOT) had paved the way for telecom companies (Airtel, Vodafone etc.) to be sued in the consumer courts. But the consumer courts themselves had refused to hear cases quoting an old decision by judges Katju and Ganguly saying consumer courts have no jurisdiction, and that only a government appointed arbitrator could do so. Now, it seems the consumer courts have relented. The Maharashtra State Commission first said okay, telcos can be sued. This was disastrous for telcos like Reliance and Vodafone and Airtel, so they appealed to the National Commission. With a lot of lawyers. And now a ToI article says : On November 19, 2014, Justice Malik, delivering the judgment on behalf of the bench comprising himself and Dr S M Kantikar, upheld the judgment of the Maharashtra state commission and confirmed that telecom complaints are maintainable before the consumer fora. To give a quick background: The History Since 2009, telecom consumers have been unable to approach consumer forums – where small complaints of a consumer-producer nature, such as defective merchandise or overbilling, have been quickly and assertively decided. … (Read On…)
[via Capital Mind]
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