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Marketers will call only if you want ’em to
The Government could not stop pesky calls on your mobile. Now the Supreme Court wants it to draw a list of those who want such calls. Bhadra Sinha reports.
The Government could not stop pesky calls on your mobile. Now the Supreme Court wants it to draw a list of those who want such calls.
Slamming the Government for failing to curb the menace of unsolicited calls, a bench of Justices AK Mathur and Dalveer Bhandari on Thursday asked the Ministry of Telecommunications to introduce a new “Do Call Registry” containing names of consumers who wish to receive commercial calls.
Stating that the “Do Not Call Registry” was an “unhappy experience,” the court charged the Government with favoring Telecom companies. “They are too big. You cannot take action against them,” the bench told Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium.
Contacted for their reaction, most telecom companies were not forthcoming. “We can react only after seeing the court’s order,” said an Airtel spokesperson.
The development is also likely to jolt the telemarketing industry that employed 5,53,000 people in the country in 2007 alone, according to NASSCOM data.
The court asked the Department of Telecommunications to terminate licences of telemarketers who've failed to register themselves three months after the notification of the Telecom Unsolicited Commercial Communications Regulations in March.
The court also asked the Government to allot a distinct number to identify a telemarketing call. Justice Mathur, who was vocal in criticising the Government, said he was a victim of pesky calls despite being registered in the DNC registry.
“These calls invade my privacy. This Do Not Call registry has been a failure,” he said.
