The Delhi High Court has upheld its single judge order dismissing Vodafone's plea against the consultation process adopted by telecom regulator TRAI for fixing interconnection usage charges (IUCs) between cellular and fixed line operators.
IUCs are charges paid by operators of telecommunication services on whom the call originates to operators at whose end the call terminates. The charges are currently determined in accordance with the Telecom Interconnection Usage Charges Regulations 2015.
Vodafone had moved the larger bench against the single judge's September 4 order.
The single judge's verdict was upheld by a bench of Justices S Ravindra Bhat and Sunil Gaur, which said "there is no error in the single judge's findings".
The single judge had found that the TRAI's inaction to accede to Vodafone's demand, or refusal to share the models demanded of it, were not in violation of the transparency mandate under section 11(4) of the TRAI Act.
"The appeal has to accordingly fail and is therefore, dismissed, without order on costs," the bench said.
The plea had claimed that if the data was not shared with them, the entire consultation would be violative of the principles of natural justice in accordance with the TRAI Act and other provisions of law.
Initially, the company had moved the court earlier this year against consultation papers on IUCs floated by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), in an attempt to make it reveal the cost models gathered to determine the revised rates on the grounds of transparency.
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