By IANS,
New Delhi : The Delhi High Court Wednesday issued notices to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and the central government on a petition challenging the regulator’s imposition of a cap of 200 SMSes per day per person.
A division bench of Acting Chief Justice A.K. Sikri and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw has given two weeks to the government and the TRAI to respond to the petition filed by Anil Kumar, secretary of an NGO Telecom Watchdog, who sought quashing of the TRAI’s order restricting the number of SMSes per day with effect from Sep 27, 2011.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the petitioner, told the court: “Such a cap violates the sanctity of democratic norms and right to freedom of speech and expression of every person in the country.”
He alleged that the SMS cap has been imposed in a non-transparent manner without prior consultation with the stakeholders.
According to the petition, “the checks and measures already put in place under the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations, 2010, were adequate to curb the menace of unsolicited commercial communications.”
In an effort to curb pesky calls and SMSes, the TRAI had Sep 5 this year ordered telecom firms to limit the number of SMSes per day per SIM to 100.
However, acting on a number of representations, the TRAI later enhanced the cap to 200.
The next date of hearing is Jan 18 next year.