New Delhi, Oct. 4 (PTI): The Delhi Consumer Commission has directed mobile phone companies, banks and tele-marketing agencies to immediately check “unsolicited and unnerving calls and SMSes” to consumers or face jail.

The panel warned them that if these were not stopped, the axe would fall on their chief executive officers and top officials.

“If, in future, any violation or non-compliance of this order is brought to the notice of this commission by any consumer of any service provider, it would be treated as failure or omission to comply with the order and shall invite not only heavy punitive damages but imprisonment,” it said.

The order came on a complaint by Nivedita Sharma, a resident of south Delhi, against Bharti Televenture (BTV).

Sharma said BTV had not only been making unsolicited calls and SMSes but passing on the data to banks, financial institutions and tele-marketing agencies, which were also indulging in such activities.

Dying declaration

A dying declaration cannot be discarded merely on the ground that it was not recorded by a magistrate, the Supreme Court has held. The effect of the statement being not recorded before a magistrate would depend upon the facts and circumstances of each case and no hard-and-fast rule could be laid down in this regard.