HC dismisses Vodafone plea against Trai over IUCs

The Delhi High Court on Friday upheld its single-judge order dismissing Vodafone's plea against the consultation process adopted by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India for fixing interconnection usage charges (IUCs) between cellular and fixed line operators.

The IUC is a charge paid by a telecom operator with 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 4 September 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 refusal to accede to Vodafone's demand or to share its models 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.

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 used to determine the revised rates, on the grounds of transparency.

The appeal 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.