BSNL Fined For Inflated Bill

Consumer dispute redressal forum president Charanjeet Singh and member Rachna Arora held BSNL, the public sector telecom company, responsible for billing wrong international roaming call charges from Prabodh Chander Bali.

The forum directed the BSNL to refund the money charged for international roaming calls and pay Rs 2,000 as compensation and Rs1,000 as litigation charges.

Bali had filed a complaint stating that in May 2017 he purchased a SIM card from the opposite party by paying Rs 115. He added that while the SIM worked rightly in India, it stopped working when he reached Singapore on May 22, 2017. Bali said he filed complaints from Singapore and later on from Australia but to no avail.

He alleged that even as the SIM card did not work, he was charged for some international roaming calls in the bill of next month. He said that he was forced to pay the bill. Bali also alleged that BSNL had charged Rs 115 for the SIM whose actual cost was around Rs 10.

While the forum has held BSNL guilty of deficiency in service, Bali said that the compensation was too low. The victim said he spent 1 year and 9 months in this case and appeared on at least 30 different dates to plead his complaint in person.

He added that as per the Consumer Act, a consumer complaint is to be decided maximum within 90 days as summary trials. “But consumer courts give unnecessary adjournments on request of counsels of opposite parties which are most powerful and affluent intuitions. This is sheer abuse of the judicial process,” Bali said, adding that he would appeal against the decision.―Tribune India