NEW DELHI, February 12: The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is planning to push through amendments in the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), Act of 1997 through an Ordinance issued by the President. The move seeks to amend the most controversial clauses, like section 2 (1)(j) and section 11 (1), 11(1) (e) and 11(1) (p), which allow the TRAI to hear cases in areas which the DoT feels are its exclusive domain -- essentially issues which relate to DoT's powers as the licensing authority for telecom services.According to the draft Cabinet note prepared by the DoT, if certain provisions in the TRAI Act were not amended, it would mean that DoT would lose its powers in "enforcing compliance of terms and conditions of (the) license which would (then) be the exclusive jurisdiction of the TRAI."
This, the DoT has explained, would lead to licensees "raising various grounds, would approach the TRAI and defer the payment of liicence fees, resulting in large sums of licence fees remaining unrealised.To prevent such overlap in functions, the DoT seeks to amend provision 11 (1) (e) of the TRAI Act so as to remove the conflict that this clause raises with Section 38 of the TRAI Act.
While stating this, the DoT has also stated that under the given TRAI Act through section 25, the government has powers to issue directions to the TRAI. However, this may not be an appropriate step for the government to resort to this option in such cases.
The DoT contends that "it was never the government's intention to vest the TRAI wiith any jurisdiction over licensing issues." It says that it was at the instance of the Standing Committee on Communications that such clauses were introduced in the ACt., However now that these clauses have raised ambiguity in their interpretation, there is a need to amend the Act.
The draft note further states that the DoT has a dual role to perform, one as the licensing authority and the second as the serviice provider. So far as its role as a licensor is concerned, the TRAI should nothave any jurisdiction over the DoT as it acts on the part of the government in accordance with the government policy.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
