Indian Telegraph Rules, 1951
[As amended by G.S.R. 220(E) dated 26th March, 2004]
PRELIMINARY
1. Short Title and Extent.--
(1) These rules may be called the Indian Telegraph Rules, 1951.
(2) They extend to the whole of India.
PART--I
GENERAL
2. Definitions.--
In these rules, unless the context otherwise requires,--
(a) "Answer back Code" means a combination of characters used to provide a short code to identify the subscriber--
(i) "Auto transmitter" means an apparatus used for transmission of perforated tapes;
(ii) "Call " means a conversation between two or more subscribers connected to the same exchange and includes a conversation with such other service connected with the telephone system as may be specified by the Telegraph Authority;
(ab) "Bureau Fax Service" means a telecommunication service offered through a Telegraph officer of a Telecommunication Centre, providing telecommunication facilities to the public for the purpose of transmitting documents (and not exclusively photographs) by compatible facsimile machines and involving a distant reproduction of the originals in the form of graphics, hand written or printed material;
(b) "Called Person" means a subscriber with whom a caller wishes to speak;
(c) "Caller" means a subscriber who registers his demand for a trunk call;
(i) "Collect Call" means a call for which the person booking the trunk call specifies, while booking it, that he wishes the call to be paid for by the called party;
(ca) "Central Telegraph Office" means the Principal Telegraph Office in a city, where there are more than one Telegraph Office;
(d) "Combined Office" means a post office which is in telegraphic communication with a Government telegraph office, or at which telegrams may be handed in for despatch by messenger to the nearest telegraph office for onward transmission;
(i) "Commutator Board" means an equipment for terminating telegraph circuits so as to facilitate interconnection between any two desired circuits;
(ii) "Credit Card Facility" means a facility whereunder a subscriber or his representative who has applied for and been issued under such terms and conditions as may be prescribed by the telegraph authority with a Credit Card may make trunk calls from any telephone, public or private, to any other telephone and have the charges debited against the telephone subscriber specified in the Credit Card;
(e) "Departmental Exchange" means a telephone exchange which is installed, maintained and controlled by the Telegraph Authority;
(i) "Electronic Exchange" means an electronically operated and maintained Telephone Exchange of the stored programme controlled type which uses a computer for the establishment of telephone calls;
(ii) "Non-Electronic Exchange" means a Telephone Exchange other than Electronic Exchange;
(f) Omitted by G.S.R. 74, dated 18-1-1991.
(i) "Dialling Unit" means an equipment associated with the subscriber's teleprinter machine to enable calls being set up automatically;
(g) "Direct Exchange Line" is a Telephone connection directly working on a departmental exchange;
(h) "Director-General" means the Director General of Posts and Telegraphs;
(i) "Divisional Engineer" means the Divisional Engineer, Telegraph or Telephones and includes all Heads of Telephone District and any other officer who may be empowered to discharge the functions of the Divisional Engineer under these rules;
(j) "Double Period or Unit" means a period in excess of three minutes but not in excess of six minutes;
(k) "Exchange System" means any Departmental Telephone Exchange or Exchanges and any lines connected therewith declared by the Telegraph Authority to be an exchange system;
(l) "Extension" means a subsidiary telephone connection having access to the exchange line with or without the intervention of the main station;
(m) "External Extension" means the extension other than an internal extension;
(n) "Fixed Time Call" means a trunk call between two numbers which is to be put through at or about a specified time;
(o) "Flat Rate System" means a system of charging on telephones under which a subscriber is required to pay fixed annual rental for the line connecting his telephone to any exchange within the exchange system, but not any call fees for local calls from his telephones;
(p) "Government Telegraph Office" includes telegraph offices and combined offices;
1[(pa) "interface device" means a device through which internal wiring in the premises of a person to whom a telephone service has been sanctioned is interfaced with the external line, cable and exchange equipment.]
(q) "Internal extension" means an extension located in the same building in which the main connection is working;
(r) "International telephone service" means a trunk call service between India and any other country except Ceylon, Nepal and Pakistan;
(s) "Interpolated Public Call Office" means a public call office which is opened on a trunk line between two exchanges;
(t) "Junction line" means a line connecting any two exchanges in an exchange system or connecting a departmental exchange with a private branch exchange or an exchange of a licensee or a privately owned exchange;
(u) "Late fee" means a fee payable, in addition to the prescribed call charges for a local or trunk call, made from or to a Public Call Office outside its regular working hours;
(v) "Licensed telegraph office" means a telegraph office maintained and worked for the purpose of receiving and transmitting paid telegrams under a licence granted under Section 4 of the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885 (13 of 1885);
2[(w) "Local area" in respect of an exchange system means the area coterminous with the Short Distance Charging Area (SDCA) or where the Telegraph Authority has declared any area served by an exchange system to be the local area for the purpose of telephone connections, then, such declared area.]
(x) "Local call" means a call from a subscriber's line to another line on any exchange within the same exchange system;
(y) (i) "Local circuit" means a circuit provided between a telegraph office and the party's premises;
(ii) "Local leads" means the circuit provided between a Voice Frequency Telegraph Station, carrier station or Trunk exchange on one side and party's premises on the other;
(z) "Measured Rate system" means a system of a charging of telephone under which a subscriber pay a fixed annual rental for the line connecting his telephone to any exchange within the exchange system and entitles him to make calls free of charge up to a specified number of call units during a fixed period, each call unit in excess of that number being charged at the prescribed rates;
(aa) "Message rate system" means a system of charging on telephones under which a subscriber, besides paying a fixed annual rental for the line connecting his telephone to any exchange within the exchange system, is also required to pay call fees for each call from his telephone at rates prescribed for such calls;
(bb) "Messenger service" means a facility at Public Telephones for a particular called person at a given address being sent for under such conditions and on payment of such charges as the Telegraph Authority may prescribe;
(bba) "Metered demand service" means manual trunk telephone service established between stations where the charging is effected automatically on the calling subscriber's telephone meter not involving preparation of trunk call tickets;
(bbab) (i) "Number-to Number Call" is a trunk call exchanged between a specified telephone number at one station and another specified telephone number at another station;
(cc) "Own Your Telephone scheme" means a scheme under which the subscriber makes an initial lump sum payment towards the rental for the line connecting his telephone to any exchange within the exchange system, and in consideration thereof is allowed a reduction in the annual rental payable by him for a specified period;
(dd) "Parent exchange" to a Public Telephones is the telephone exchange to which it is directly connected;
(ee) "Particular person call" means a trunk call where the caller wishes to speak to a specified person;
(ff) "Party line connection" is a telephone connection where 2 or more parties share in a common line to a departmental exchange;
(i) "Person-to Person call" is a trunk call arranged from a specified individual at one station to another specified individual at another station whether these persons be subscribers or not;
(gg) "Phonogram " means a telegraphic message sent to or received from a telegraph office by a subscriber over the telephone;
(hh) "Postal receiving office" means a post office which is not in telegraphic communication with a Government telegraph office but at which inland telegrams may be handed in for dispatch by post, without additional charge, to a telegraph office for onward transmission;
(ii) "Postmaster-General" means a Postmaster-General as defined in Section 2 of the Indian Post Office Act, 1898 (4 of 1898);
(i) "Printing perforator" means an apparatus used for preparing perforated tapes which can be fed through an auto-transmitter;
(jj) "Private branch exchange" means an exchange provided for any one party and connected to a departmental exchange;
(kk) "Private exchange" means a telephone exchange provided exclusively for the use of an organisation or an individual and not connected to the public network;
(ll) "Private wires" are those which connect two subscribers through a departmental exchange system whether a private wire relay set is installed at the exchange or not and are not connected to the local telephone system and to the general trunk net work;
(mm) "Private wire junction" means a line connecting two private exchanges;
(nn) "Public telephone" means a...
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