New Delhi, Dec. 7 (PTI): Delhi High Court today asked the Centre to explain why it had limited the number of text messages from a SIM card to 200 daily.

The court issued notices to the Union communications ministry and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) seeking their replies within two weeks to a plea that termed the cap “wholly unnecessary and arbitrary” and urged the court to quash it.

The restriction imposed by Trai violated the fundamental freedom of citizens and was against democratic norms, said Prashant Bhushan, who filed the plea on behalf of Anil Kumar, secretary in the telecom watchdog.

The petitioner argued that the limit was clamped on the pretext of cracking down on the large number of “telemarketing” calls and unsolicited texts — called unrestricted unsolicited commercial communications (UCC) in telecom jargon.

But the petition questioned the approach and pointed out that the UCC calls had dropped substantially in the absence of any limit.

“Unrestricted unsolicited commercial communications by telemarketers were interfering with the personal lives of individuals. However, under the garb of controlling UCC, Trai has barred common users from sending more than 200 SMS per day. Putting a cap was an undesirable act which Trai apparently took at the behest of the Centre,” the petition said.

Bhushan said if the points made in the plea were accepted, it would benefit people all over the country tied down by the SMS cap.

The initial limit, set on September 27, was 100 but was increased to 200 on November 1 following a number of representations.

After issuing the notices, a bench of acting Chief Justice A.K. Sikri and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw fixed January 18 as the next hearing date.