Petition Nos. 345 and 357 of 2014. Case: Tata Teleservices Ltd. Vs Union of India. TDSAT (Telecom Disputes Settlement & Appellate Tribunal)
| Case Number | Petition Nos. 345 and 357 of 2014 |
| Counsel | For Appellant: Ramji Srinivasan, Sr. Advocate, Nitin Kala and Kunal Singh, Advocates and For Respondents: S.S. Shamshery and Vikas Malik, Advocates |
| Judges | Aftab Alam, J. (Chairperson), Dr. Kuldip Singh and B.B. Srivastava, Members |
| Issue | Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (CPC) - Order II Rule 2 |
| Judgement Date | November 23, 2015 |
| Court | TDSAT (Telecom Disputes Settlement & Appellate Tribunal) |
Order:
Dr. Kuldip Singh, Member
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The petitioner is aggrieved by the action of the respondent Union of India, Department of Telecommunications, in raising demands levying interest on alleged short fall of payment towards penalty imposed by the respondent for alleged violation of subscriber verification norms.
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The petitioner, Tata Teleservices Ltd., is a service provider holding Unified Access Service (UAS) License granted by the respondent. Petition No. 345 of 2014 is in respect of Rajasthan Circle and petition No. 357 of 2014 is in respect of Orissa Circle. Since the facts of the two cases are similar, these are being disposed of by this common order.
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Brief facts of the case are as follows.
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In terms of the circulars/guidelines issued by the respondent from time to time, the petitioners are required to get a Customer Acquisition Form (CAF) filled and do certain verification of a subscriber before activating its service. The respondent, Department of Telecommunications (DOT), Union of India, raised certain demands on the petitioner for alleged violation of these subscriber verification norms. These demands were raised for the period between 02.08.2010 to 06.11.2012 for Rajasthan Circle1 and for the period between 28.07.2010 to 28.06.2011 for Orissa Circle2 of the petitioner. Similar demands were raised on other service providers also.
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Some of the demands and the power/jurisdiction of the respondent to issue circulars/guidelines in this regard were challenged before this Tribunal by an association of the operators in Cellular Operators Association of India & others v. DoT and Anr. in petition No. 252 of 2011. The petition was disposed of by the Tribunal on 12.04.2012. While upholding the legality and validity of the circulars/guidelines in question, the Tribunal directed that the financial penalty should be calculated on the principals as followed in the Income Tax System i.e. rate of penalty is to be calculated separately for each slab. The order of the Tribunal in this regard is as under:
The financial penalty should be calculated on the principles as it is followed in the Income Tax system, i.e. rate of financial penalty to be calculated separately for each slab and the total amount of penalty arrived at.
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We may note here that an application under Order II Rule 2 of the CPC praying for leave of this Tribunal to file separate petitions questioning the demand notices issued by the respondents on the operators at a later...
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