In a landmark judgment, the Central Information Commission has held that consumers can seek records of actions taken by the private telecom service providers on their complaints from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) under the RTI Act. Bringing private companies under the RTI Act, Information Commissioner Basant Seth said it is clear that under the RTI Act a consumer, through TRAI, “can access the information on the action taken by the service provider on his complaint.”
The CIC was hearing the plea of Delhi-based Akshay Kumar Malhotra who had sought to know from the TRAI the status of his complaints filed with Vodafone, related to unsolicited voice calls and SMSes received on his mobile phone which was listed on the Do Not Disturb registry.
Malhotra had filed various complaints with TRAI through his RTI application having 22 queries spread over six pages. He sought to obtain information relating to not taking action and reasons for the same, mentioning certain relevant rules of Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference (TCCCPR) rules.
However, the TRAI did not provide desired information. It claimed that it has no such authority under the TRAI Act.