TRAI to be disbanded

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JAN. 19. The Union Cabinet tonight decided to divest the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) of its judicial powers by setting up a a separate dispute settlement and appellate tribunal. Consequently, it also decided to disband the present Authority and appoint a new one in its place. The changes are to be brought about in the form of an Ordinance.

The Ordinance, which is expected to be promulgated in a couple of days, will bring about several other amendments also in the TRAI Act. The other aims of the amendments are: to make recommendations of the Regulatory Authority in respect of new licences mandatory on Government, to allow it to fix terms and conditions of inter-connectivity between service providers, to permit it to recommend technology improvements, and lay down service quality standards, to allow it to recommend the need and timing of a new service provider either suo motu or on special request of the licensor, and to take away the powers of the CAG to audit the quasi-judicial functions of the Authority.

Announcing this, Union Minister and spokesperson of the Government, Mr. Pramod Mahajan, said the new dispute settlement Tribunal would have a chairman and two members and appeals on orders, directions and decisions of the Regulatory Authority shall lie before it, instead of the High Court. The Chairman should have been a Judge of the Supreme Court or a Chief Justice of High Court, and any appeal on the Tribunal's orders shall go straight to the Supreme Court.

Consequent to the creation of the Tribunal, the Regulatory Authority would also be re-constituted and would have a chairperson, two permanent members and two part-time members. The present members of the Authority would vacate their office, but be eligible for re-appointment in the authority or the Tribunal, he said and added that the Chairman of the Tribunal would be appointed in consultation with the Chief Justice of India.

He also clarified that no minimum qualification was being prescribed for the post of the Chairman of the Regulatory Authority. The Tribunal and the Regulatory Authority would have three year terms.

Addressing a press conference soon after the Cabinet meeting, Mr. Mahajan said the Government had decided on the amendments with a view to strengthening the Regulatory Authority and making it more independent. The amendments followed the recommendations of a high-level panel under the Information and Broadcasting Minister, Mr. Arun Shourie. The panel itself was the sub-committee of a committee set up by the Prime Minister, Mr. A.B.Vajpayee, in December under the leadership of the Finance Minister, Mr. Yashwant Sinha.

The separate dispute settlement tribunal, he said, had been necessitated as there was a lot of confusion since the Government was both the licensor and a service provider and as a result there was need for a neutral agency to settle disputes between the Government as the licensor and the private service providers, on the one hand, and between the Government as the service provider and other service providers, on the other.

PTI reports

Mr. Justice S.S. Sodhi, TRAI Chairman, was caught unawares by the Government's decision tonight to disband the panel and appoint a new regulator that would not have dispute settlement powers.

When contacted, Mr. Sodhi said he would comment on the issue only tomorrow. Asked if he had inkling of the government's move, Mr. Sodhi said 'no'.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Front Page
Previous : BJP panel to meet again today