Recover dues from ex-MPs, HC tells MTNL

January 5: The Bombay High Court on Monday directed Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) to recover by February 9, 1998, telephone dues amounting to Rs 92.42 lakh from former members of parliament and ordered disconnection of their lines in case they failed to pay up before the set deadline.

The direction was given by Chief Justice M B Shah and Justice Rajan Kochar on a public interest writ petition filed by advocate M P Vashi alleging MTNL’s discriminatory attitude toward the politicians by not recovering from them arrears of telephone bills amounting to Rs 8.50 crore. Opposing the petition, MTNL contended in an affidavit that the defaulters were Dr Chinta Mohan, (10.85 lakh), M R Janardhan (11.11 lakh), M H Gohil (11.61 lakh), Ram Deo Ram (9.36 lakh), Rajesh Kumar (6.06 lakh), Sunil Dutt (2.01 lakh), Mukul Wasnik (2.32 lakh), M M Hashim (13.17 lakh), Ram Sunder Das (11.16 lakhs), Venkata Krishna Reddy Kasu (11.56 lakh) and Jayanti Patnayak (3.17 lakh).

The petitioner contended that MPs are allowed 50,000 free telephone calls worth Rs 65,000 and if the bill exceeds this amount they were required to pay from their own pocket. But most of the MPs crossed the limit of free telephone calls.

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The petitioner contended that in the case of citizens, telephone lines were disconnected if the bills were not paid within two-three months from its receipt or service. However, in the case of elected members of parliament MTNL authorities had not adopted the same attitude.

It was argued that the MPs were granted the telephone facility only with a view to serve the people better and not misuse it for their personal work. Also, they were not required to maintain any record of telephone’s use. Therefore, some guideline should be laid down.

MTNL submitted that as per the instructions issued by Department of Telecommunication, telephone lines of MPs could not be disconnected due to non-payment of bills.