NEW DELHI, SEPT 22: The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is actively considering offering the role of an arbitrator to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in settling disputes between the Department and private operators in the field of basic, cellular, paging and other services. A note proposing to bestow the status of an arbitrator on the TRAI was discussed at the last meeting of the Telecom Commission.The proposal follows the Communications Minister's directive to the Department for taking steps to strengthen the TRAI which had received a major jolt when the Delhi High Court in July gave a judgement barring the Authority from adjudicating cases between the DoT as a licensor and private operators as licensees. The DoT had dragged the TRAI to court when the regulator stayed the DoT from encashing bank guarantees of companies who had defaulted on their licence fee payments.In the last few weeks, several steps have been taken by the Department to bridge the yawning schism between theDoT and the TRAI including visits from the Communications Minister Sushma Swaraj and the Telecom Secretary Anil Kumar to the 20th floor office of the TRAI at Jawahar Vyapar Bhawan. The DoT is making efforts, prior to the minister's visit to the US later this month, to strengthen of the TRAI to build a favourable investment climate.But the DoT has its own interest chalked out before making any move to lend more teeth to the TRAI. The DoT's logic for granting the arbitrator's role to the TRAI is based on the fact that this would be governed by the Arbitration and Conciliation Act of 1996 under which the arbitrator's award would hold several advantages for the Department. These would include the fact that the TRAI would not be able to stay any proceedings of the DoT even if it was appointed arbitrator, the awards are not binding on the disputing parties if either of them does not agree with it, no contempt of court or powers of summoning are there uder the Arbitration Act.The TRAI on the other hand, isunder no illusions about the DoT's actual goal behind any such reproachment move. Says an indignant Justice S S Sodhi, ``the DoT has already rendered the TRAI toothless by winning the jurisdiction case in the Delhi High Court. Do they now want to reduce our scope even more by making us the arbitrator and appeal against our award even in lower civil courts?'' Sodhi emphatically points out that the TRAI would not accept such a role even if it was offered to them.``The fact is that when the private operator has a problem with the DoT, he is likely to look for a forum for the redressal of his complaint - be it the TRAI, the arbitrator or the judicial court,'' says Justice Sodhi. `` It is up to the government to take a policy decision on which of these fora fulfill the three aims of expeditious, inexpensive and independent decisions, and where they would like to defend themselves and suitably direct their policies,'' he adds.According to telecom experts, while the DoT cannot be expected to give up itssovereignty for the TRAI over licensing issues, the government may do well to formulate a coherent policy regarding dispute settlement after the TRAI has lost out. Private operators, they say, in different parts of the country will now register their cases in Courts in the state headquarters and the DoT will have a tough time defending themselves in all these courts.
