SC calls for early action against unsolicited calls

The Supreme Court on Tuesday gave eight weeks’ time to the Union Government to amend a law and ensure early...

The Supreme Court on Tuesday gave eight weeks’ time to the Union Government to amend a law and ensure early facilitation of stiff penalties on service providers and telemarketing companies to curb the menace of pesky calls.

A directive in this regard came from a Bench, headed by Justice Ashok Bhan, which asked the Government to file a compliance report giving details about the mechanism being adopted by it to impose harsher penalties, as per the recommendation of TRAI, to check unsolicited calls.

The order came after Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium submitted that the authorities would need some time to amend the law to implement revised penalties ranging from Rs 5,000 to Rs 20,000 on various banks and mobile service providers making pesky calls despite subscribers registering with the ‘National Do-Not-Call Registry’. The ASG informed the court that the telecom regulator had notified that service providers would be subjected to a fine of Rs 5,000 for the first unsolicited commercial call made to a subscriber enlisted in the National Do-Not-Call-registry and Rs 20,000 for every subsequent call.

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It would act as an effective deterrent for non-compliance of the regulations and reduce the nuisance and inconvenience caused to mobile phone subscribers, he added.

Subramanium further said the guidelines and regulations — National Do-Not-Call Registry — related to checking pesky calls have been in place since September. Counsel Vivek Tankha and Prashant Kumar, appearing for petitioner Harsh Pathak, submitted that there was no mechanism to implement the regulations.

Earlier, the apex court had sought reply from 11 respondents including the Centre, cellular operators and nationalised banks on a PIL filed by advocate Harsh Pathak over the menace.

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