Karnataka High Court Dismisses Plea Seeking Action By TRAI Against Spam Calls, Fraudulent Practises By Telemarketers

The Karnataka High Court has dismissed a petition filed by one Mohammed Dastagir, seeking direction on the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to take urgent steps to prevent telemarketers from creating fake records and include names of telecom subscribers in the list of numbers to whom they send pesky calls and also provide for stringent punishment for such fraudulent practices.

A single judge bench of Justice M G S Kamal dismissed the petition and granted liberty to the petitioner to approach the appropriate forum to seek adjudication of his grievances.

The petitioner claimed that he had purchased a prepaid SIM card from an agent of respondent No.6 (Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited) in July 2017. On 10.07.2017, he requested the authority to register his number under the 'Fully Blocked Category' from receiving unwanted calls.

However, unsolicited commercial communications (UCC) were being received by the petitioner for which he often raised complaints with respondent No.6 (Reliance Jio) and replies were also received.

It was said in the petition that on 10.07.2019 petitioner received an email from respondent No.2 (Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited) stating that the petitioner had opted to receive UCC from respondent No.3 (ONEXTEL MEDIA PVT LTD) which was done fraudulently. Following this he issued legal notices to concerned respondents. Since no action was taken he approached the court.

In his plea, he had also sought to take appropriate penal action against the offending telemarketers and service providers.

The court noted that Dastagir was unable to point out either from the petition averments or the documents enclosed as to his constitutional or contractual rights, which according to him, have been breached by any of the respondents. However, he claimed that his right to privacy was breached by unsolicited calls by respondent No.3.

Further, the court said, “He is also unable to point out the contractual obligation which his service provider owes to him, warranting any interference under Article 226 of the Constitution of India.”

The respondents also informed the court that the petitioner had given his consent on telemarketer Portal Multigames4U.biz on 13.02.2019 and had thus become a registered user of multigames4U which is why the sms was sent on his mobile.

Based on the complaints made by him a penalty of Rs.25,000 was imposed on telemarketer M/s.Mgage India Pvt. Ltd., for misusing transactional bandwidth for promotional activities by sending sms to the telephone number of the petitioner.

The respondents also submitted that Dastagir may institute such proceedings seeking such reliefs as may be available for breach of terms of contract or deficiency in service by the respondents if any.

Noting the same, the court dismissed the petition.

Appearance: Mohammed Dastagir–Party in person.

CGC M N Kumar for R1, R2 AND R4.

Advocate Vijaya Belavadi FOR R5.

Advocate Praveen Prabhakar FOR R6.

Citation No: 2024 LiveLaw (Kar) 387

Case Title: Mohammed Dastagir AND Telecom Regulatory Authority of India & Others

Case No: WRIT PETITION NO. 45162 OF 2019

Click Here To Read/Download Order