No Telecom Ombudsman In India, Case In Bombay High Court

Though the Government has plans to make India a fully digital country, it has not so far set up an independent authority to redress individual telecom complaints. The office of the TRAI is flooded with complaints of wrong billing, an indifferent or poor quality telecom service, and the non-provision of contracted services. The consumer is not motivated to take legal recourse due to time and cost constraints.

- Dipen Pradhan

The Bombay High Court has directed the Central Government and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to reply to a PIL petition filed by Gansham Ramchandani seeking the setting up of an Ombudsman in the telecom sector. The 11th hearing in the case is due on April 7, 2017.

The PIL states that an Ombudsman should be set up in the telecom sector with powers to entertain complaints and redress the grievances of telecom consumers. The Ombudsman should have authority to issue necessary directions and impose fines on telecom companies if they isolate its rules.

At present, the complaint procedure in the telecom sector works on a tier basis. The unsatisfied consumer addresses his/her problem to the Telecom Service Provider (TSP) through its call centre, and if not satisfied the complainant approaches the Appellant Senior Officer (ASO) of the same Service Provider.

Hitesh Ramchandani, counsel for the petitioner, tells Bureaucracy Today, “The ASO of the Service Provider will always try to protect the interests of the company. If the consumer is not satisfied with an order of the ASO, he/she can approach the Department of Telecommunications (DoT). If still not satisfied, the complainant can approach the TRAI.”

“The TRAI Act does not entertain the receipt of individual consumer complaints and the DoT Public Grievance Cell does not actively engage itself in the resolution of consumer grievances. It rather acts as a facilitator and just forwards the consumer complaint to the same TSP. The TSP has discretion to close down the complaint received from the DoT,” Hitesh Ramchandani says.