The Department of Telecom has charged a fine of over Rs 26 crore against Bharti Airtel for not following the guidelines of re-verification of pre-paid customers in Jammu and Kashmir. The fine has been Rs. 50, 000 per case, and Bharti Airtel has asked the Telecom Enforcement, Resource and Monitoring (TERM) to have a lenient approach on the fine and reduce the penalty to Rs.1000 per case.
The TERM Cell of Jammu and Kashmir has approached the Telecom Ministry in Delhi, seeking its advice whether to consider the amount of penalty of Rs 50,000 or Rs 5,000 for non-compliant case as the total penalty reduces respectively from Rs 26.92 crore to Rs 2.92 crore.
Bharti Airtel said, they have represented the case to Jammu and Kashmir’s TERM cell and termed the Penalty of Rs 26.92 crore as “very harsh”, unbalanced to various judgements pronounced by High Court and TDSAT.
Jammu and Kashmir’s TERM cell says that the company has violated the guidelines prescribed by the DOT order dated 20th Jan 2010, regarding restoration of pre-paid connections upon completion of re-verification.
