Caught in the loop

New Delhi, Aug. 23: In a major setback to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), the Telecom Dispute Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) disqualified the watchdog from intervening in any dispute over interconnectivity between two operators.

Dismissing a review petition filed by Trai against Bharat Sanchar Nigam, the appellate tribunal said since the telecom regulator has no adjudicatory functions under the Trai Act, it does not have powers to pass interim orders in disputes between two operators.

In its judgement, TDSAT said, “If Trai has no powers to pass final orders, it cannot certainly have powers to intervene” by passing interim orders.

The appellate tribunal clarified that Trai has the authority to fix the terms and conditions of inter-connectivity between service providers, to ensure technical compatibility and effective interconnection between different service providers.

The judgement pointed out that Trai had relied on certain clauses of the model reference interconnect offer (RIO), including article 17.1 which deals with termination of interconnection agreement between parties, article 17.2 that deals with withdrawal of interconnection for non-payment and article 18 which deals with disputes.

The appellate tribunal said, “All these articles of RIO may be changed by parties through mutual agreement. How can a model RIO, which can even be modified by the parties entering into interconnection agreement, be termed as having statutory proportions as far as this tribunal is concerned?”

TDSAT said the Trai Act clearly stipulates that in matters relating to adjudication of disputes, only TDSAT will play the role of the adjudicator.

According to a senior Trai member, “We are yet to receive the judgement copy. But, if it has barred us from intervention then we need to revisit the Trai Act and the government and legal experts will have to view it again. We believe, we have been acting according to the powers stipulated under the act.”