The directions were issued on Monday by chief justice MB Shah and Justice Y C Jahagirdar who heard a public interest petition filed by advocate MP Vashi alleging discriminatory attitude of Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) towards politicians by not recovering from them arrears of telephone bills.

On January 4 last, the high court had ordered the MTNL to recover from the MPs arrears of telephone bills which then worked out to Rs 8.50 crore. Since MTNL could not recover the dues, the court has now directed the secretariat to recover the arrears which has gone up to Rs 14.15 crore as on September 25 last.

Under the Member of Parliament Act, 1957, the secretariat has the powers to recover dues of telephones,electricity or such expenditure from the defaulting MPs.

MTNL also informed the court that it had recently withdrawn its earlier circular of November 26, 1983 which specifically provided that telephones of VIPs should not be disconnected just to recover the arrears. MTNL filed an affidavit stating that 226 telephones of sitting and former members of parliament had recently been disconnected under Rule 443 of India Telegraph Rules for recovering arrears. It further informed that only Rs 58 lakhs had been recovered from former MPs as against their arrears amounting to Rs 9.61 crore on September 25 last.

Besides, MTNL disclosed, 174 former MPs who were re-elected to the 12th Lok Sabha and 77 sitting Rajya Sabha MPs were in arrears of telephone bills amounting to Rs 6.11 crore of which only Rs 69 lakh had been recovered.

The petitioner contended that the MPs are allowed 50,000 free telephone calls worth Rs 65,000 and if the bill exceeds this amount they were required to pay from their own pocket. But mostof the MPs crossed the limit of free telephone calls.

The petitioner argued that in case of citizens, telephone lines were disconnected if the bills were not paid within two or three months from its receipt or service. However, in the case of elected members of parliament, MTNL authorities had not adopted the same attitude.

The petitioner submitted that the MPs were granted the telephone facility only with a view to serve the people better and that they were not supposed to misuse it for their personal work. Besides, they were not required to maintain any record. Therefore, some guidelines should be laid down. The matter would now be heard on November 30.