Notice to Trai, telecom cos on festive day SMS charges

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The Madurai bench of Madras high court on Wednesday issued notices to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) and all other telecom companies including BSNL on a petition seeking an order against collection of excess charges for text messages during festival days.

In a public interest litigation, advocate Arunachalam alias Arun of Kandanur in Sivagangai district stated that cellular phone was introduced in the country in 1990 and now its usage has reached an optimum level with crores of people using mobile phones.

With the habit among the users to convey festival wishes to friends, relatives and colleagues through SMS on the rise, the telecom firms have started collecting extra charges for SMSes during special
occasions taking advantage of the popular practice.

While only Rs 1 is collected for a text message on a normal day, Rs 1.5 is charged for every message on festival days such as New Year, Deepavali, Pongal and special occasions like Valentine’s day.

Even those users who had opted free SMS scheme plan offered by the service providers are not spared.

Stating that it was illegal, he charged that Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, the monitoring body, has failed to restrain the service providers from collecting excess charges for festival day SMS found convenient by the users to exchange greetings and share joyous moments.

The firms, the petitioner charged, are minting crores of rupees from the special SMS rates. He sought an interim stay against slapping excess charges for messages in view of the New Year and prayed for action against the service providers.

A division bench comprising justices S. Rajeswaran and S.Vimala ordered issue of notices to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India and 10 telecom firms and adjourned the case for January 21.