Economic
Times: New Delhi: Monday, 13 July 2015.
Consumers can
seek records of action taken by private telecom service providers (TSP) on
their complaints from Telecom Regulatory Authority of India under the RTI Act,
the CIC has held.
In a
directive seen as a major step opening doors of questioning private companies
under the Act, Information Commissioner Basant Seth said it is clear that under
the Right to Information Act a consumer, through TRAI, "can access the
information on the action taken by the service provider on his complaint".
The Central
Information Commission was hearing the plea of Delhi-based Akshay Kumar
Malhotra who had sought to know from TRAI the status of his complaints filed
with Vodafone related to unsolicited voice calls and SMSes received on his
mobile phone which was listed on the Do Not Disturb registry.
He had filed
various complaints with TRAI. Through his RTI application having 22 queries
spread over six pages he sought to know information relating to not taking
action and reasons for the same mentioning certain relevant rules of Telecom
Commercial Communications Customer Preference (TCCCPR) rules.
However, the
TRAI did not provide desired information. During the hearing, Malhotra cited
Section 2(f) of the RTI Act which says "the information relating to any
private body which can be accessed by a public authority under any other law
for the time being in force" adding that the TRAI has the authority to
access the information from Vodafone which must be supplied to him."
The TRAI
claimed that it has no such authority under the TRAI Act. It said such information
cannot be called from the service provider solely for providing information
under the RTI Act.
Rejecting the
argument, Seth said TRAI is sole regulatory authority in such cases.
"On the
issue of seeking action against the service provider through RTI application,
the respondent has stated that RTI application can be used only for seeking
information available on the records of the CPIO, hence the applicant has no
right to seek action under the RTI Act," he noted.
The
Information Commissioner, however, added that RTI Act can be used with TRAI to
access information on action taken by the complaint of a consumer by a private
company but inaction on the part of redressal of his grievance can be agitated
only before Consumer Disputes Refressal Forum.
He said
Malhotra had followed appropriate course of law in lodging complaint before
Vodafone, Delhi, the service provider, and upon "non-action on the part of
the service provider" he sought to know the status of all his complaints
from the TRAI, which happens to be "sole regulatory authority" in
such cases.
"In
response thereto, as is evident from the records of the case, no information
has been provided by the respondent. However, it is clear that the applicant
has sought no interpretation of regulations," he said.
Citing TRAI
Act, Seth said it specifically includes the transparency provisions and
empowers the authority to call upon any service provider at any time to furnish
in writing such information or explanation relating to its affairs as it may
consider necessary.
"The
consumer/subscriber forms the most crucial part of the entire system being the
recipient of the telecom services and hence undoubtedly the interest of
consumers of the telecom sector cannot be underestimated and rather is the
primary objective of the public authority (TRAI)," he held.
Seth said it
is abundantly clear that one of the key functions of the TRAI is to protect the
interest of the consumers of the telecom sector.
"The
information sought by the applicant regarding the status of his complaints with
the Vodafone company regarding UCC...clearly falls within the regulatory powers
exercised by the TRAI and thus there can be no reason which prevents TRAI from
gathering the information from the service provider and providing the same to
the applicant," he said.
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