Gujarat HC asks TRAI to file reply on a petition challenging Tariff Order

The Gujarat High Court has issued notices to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and the Government of India (GoI) on a petition filed by Cable Operator Association of Gujarat (COAG) challenging the legality of TRAI’s Tariff Order and Interconnection Regulations. 

The two-member bench comprising Chief Justice Bhaskar Bhattacharya and Justice J.B. Pardiwala had on 12 November directed TRAI and the union government to file a reply within two weeks on the petition filed by the COAG, which has questioned the basis on which the Tariff Order and the Interconnection Regulation was prepared. 

The COAG had urged the High Court to stay the principal Tariff Order and Interconnection Regulation dated 30 April 2012 as it was violative of the fundamental rights of the cable operators. 

However, the High Court refused to grant an interim order as it was not possible to stay the implementation of an existing regulation. 

The COAG had appealed to the High Court to restrain MSOs from asking the LCOs to collect customer application form (CAF) from the subscribers. 

However, the High Court again refused to grant a stay. But it made the multi-system operators (MSOs) a party to the case and asked them to file a reply within two weeks. 

The COAG in its petition alleged that the revenue share formula mooted by TRAI was discriminatory towards local cable operators (LCOs). TRAI in its Tariff Order had devised a 55:45 (MSO: LCO) revenue share formula for free-to-air (FTA) channels and 65:35 (MSO: LCO) formula for pay channels. 

The association also argued that TRAI’s Tariff Order has acted in an unfair manner by granting the rights of billing a subscriber to the MSO, despite the fact that the last mile customer is propriety of the LCO.

 The association has also opposed the authority’s decision to allow the MSOs to design packages and decide the package rates at the cost of LCOs. 

“Thus, as per the aforesaid clauses of the Tariff Order and the Interconnection Regulations the sole discretion has been given to the MSO to raise invoices directly to the subscribers and fix the rates and to decide on the revenue to be paid to the LCO, hence the same is arbitrary and irrational,” COAG said in its petition.

The Tariff Order and the Interconnection Regulations have been designed to give the ownership rights of the last mile customers to the MSOs. The unfair revenue share formula will also lead to loss of revenue for the LCOs, COAG said in the petition. 

COAG also argued that the submission of CAF to MSOs would make LCOs more vulnerable as it contains all the information of the subscribers. 

The MSOs under the garb of interconnection agreement (to be signed between MSOs and LCOs) are restraining the LCOs from entering into contracts with the commercial establishments, the petition alleged.

Source: http://cablequest.org/news/digitization-news/item/3591-gujarat-hc-asks-trai-to-file-reply-on-a-petition-challenging-tariff-order.html
Source: http://cablequest.org/news/digitization-news/item/3591-gujarat-hc-asks-trai-to-file-reply-on-a-petition-challenging-tariff-order.html