The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : BSNL told to pay compensation of Rs.10,000 with costs to subscriber

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Sep 14, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

BSNL told to pay compensation of Rs.10,000 with costs to subscriber

K.T. Sangameswaran

Consumer court flays the eight-month delay in rectifying faulty phone line

CHENNAI: : A huge delay of eight months in rectifying a subscriber's telephone line amounts to deficiency in service, and grant of rental rebate would not absolve the department of liability, a consumer disputes redress forum has ruled.

Allowing a complaint from L. Shantha, a resident of Mambakkam, the Tiruvallur District Consumer Disputes Redress Forum has directed telephones authorities to pay her a compensation of Rs.10, 000 with costs of Rs.2, 000.

The complainant said her telephone went dead in February 2004. Following repeated representations, it was set right after 20 days. Later, it went dead again. It was set right only after several months. It was not the first time she was experiencing such a difficulty because of the authorities' "inaction and lethargic attitude" to correcting faults. She cited the Junior Engineer, BSNL (Rural), Uthukottai telephone exchange, the Divisional Engineer (Rural MTCE), BSNL, Tiruvallur, and the General Manager and Accounts Officer of BSNL, Chengalpet SSA, Eldams Road, as the opposite parties.

The defendants submitted that whenever any complaint was received, the department attended to the fault as quickly as possible. In the present case, it was not able to set right the fault immediately because of the continuous hindrance caused by the laying of water pipeline by the local panchayat and the TWAD Board. Most of the underground cables were badly affected at different places. The department restored the lines gradually at the earliest. However, in some lines, the fault could not be traced due to total damage to the underground cable. The line was set right on various dates by replacing the underground cable.

The Bench, consisting of President P. Perumalappan and Members V. Narasingamoorthy and K. Tamilselvi, said the complaint's telephone had not been rectified for eight months. Though the telephones authorities had indicated that the field officers concerned were requested to attend to the fault, nothing materialised till the filing of the complaint.

If telephone lines remain dead for a considerable number of days because of continuous hindrance by an external agency, it was the duty of the telephones authorities to inform subscribers about the cause of delay. The authorities had given a stereotyped reply to the complainant's legal notice.

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