The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : ‘Overlapping, outdated laws should go’

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Monday, Feb 25, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

‘Overlapping, outdated laws should go’

HYDERABAD: Supreme Court judge Justice B. Sudershan Reddy has underscored the need for ensuring that the legislations keep pace with the technological developments and innovations so that they can be used as facilitators to empower people.

Opening up of telecommunication and broadcasting sectors to unrestricted competition led to complexity of issues involved in disputes, but the unprecedented challenge should be taken as an opportunity through expeditious resolution of disputes in a transparent manner. Though “overlapping laws and outdated legislations must vanish”, absence of convergence in law is, however, leading to `communication divide’ which is not a good indicator for the country aspiring to lead in the information age, he said.

He was delivering the inaugural address at the one day seminar on “Dispute settlement and protection of consumer rights in telecom and broadcasting sectors” organised by the Telecom Disputes Settlement & Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) here on Sunday. On the citizenship dimension of utility services, he said utility companies were always under an obligation to provide service to anyone who reasonably requested it.

While specific institutions for consumer representation would be unnecessary in perfect market, privatised utilities were far removed from the model of a private market. TDSAT chairperson Arun Kumar favoured the constitution of a forum for regular interaction of service provider groups with consumers to sort out disputes.Andhra Pradesh High Court Chief Justice Anil Ramesh Dave, Supreme Court former judge M. Jagannadha Rao, and others spoke.

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