New Delhi
The Supreme Court has held that an individual facing any deficiency in telecom services can approach consumer forums directly with his complaint against the company.
The fact that the remedy of arbitration under the Indian Telegraph Act of 1885 is of a statutory nature would not oust the jurisdiction of the consumer forum in such matters, a bench of Justices DY Chandrachud, Surya Kant and Vikram Nath said.
“It would be open to a consumer to opt for the remedy of arbitration, but there is no compulsion in law to do so and it would be open to a consumer to seek recourse to the remedies which are provided under the (Consumer Protection) Act of 1986, now replaced by the Act of 2019, the bench said.
The top court passed the verdict on an appeal of Vodafone by which the company had challenged an order of National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) by which it had affirmed the view of SCDRC that Section 7B of the Act of 1885 would not be applicable to a private service provider since it is not a Telegraph Authority .
In its recent order, the court said that the insertion of the expression telecom services’ in the definition which is contained in Section 2(42) of the Consumer Protection Act of 2019 cannot be construed to mean that telecom services were excluded from the jurisdiction of the consumer forum under the earlier Act of 1986.
