The Hindu : New Delhi News : Sify ordered to pay damages

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Sunday, Nov 26, 2006
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New Delhi

Sify ordered to pay damages

Staff Reporter

`Reducing the promised broadband speed is deficiency of service'

NEW DELHI: His broadband connection was meant to be a highway to the worldwide web, but proved to be a roadblock for Ankur Raheja. Having bought a Sify broadband connection that claimed to provide a minimum speed of 256 Kbps, Mr. Raheja found out that like the lack of speed, most of the promises made by the company were only on paper. Determined to get his due, he took the company to a consumer court.

While the District Consumers Disputes Redressal Forum V here had earlier dismissed the case on the grounds of it not being maintainable as the matter was under the jurisdiction of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), an appeal against this order was filed in the State Commission, which remanded the case back to the Forum.

The District Consumers Disputes Redressal Forum V held Sify guilty of deficiency in service for not providing the required speed and directed it to refund Rs.1,200, the amount paid by Mr. Raheja for two months. The company was directed to pay Rs. 5,000 as compensation for causing mental agony and harassment, and Rs. 2,000 towards cost of litigation.

A bench presided over by K.S Khurana observed that promising to provide a connection having a minimum speed of 256 Kbps, and then reducing the speed to 14 Kbps after the customer downloaded 750 MB of data per month, "cannot be said providing proper services in any manner". Moreover, concealing the hidden conditions and not redressing the grievances of the complainant, who made several complaints, "amounts to deficiency in service'', the bench stated.

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