SC Dismisses PIL Seeking Regulation Of Internet Tariffs

The Supreme Court (SC) quashed a public interest litigation that sought directions to regulate internet tariffs in the country. 

As per Economic Times, an SC bench, led by Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna, on Monday (February 24) rejected the petition filed by a person named Rajat. While dismissing the plea, the court observed that consumers have multiple options for availing internet services. However, the SC gave the liberty to the petitioner to seek alternative statutory remedies.

“… We are not inclined to entertain the present petition under Article 32 of the Constitution of India. We, however, clarify that in case the petitioner wants to take any recourse to appropriate statutory remedy he is at liberty to do so , we make no comments in this regard,” said CJI Khanna. 

“It’s a free market and there is (a) local area network, you get wired internet, BSNL and MTNL is also giving internet,” the bench said. 

Arguing for himself, the petitioner contended that even though there are other players in the market, Reliance Jio owns the biggest “market chunk”. “They are giving (services), but see the market … 80% of the market share is with Jio (Reliance),” argued the petitioner. 

Retorting to this, the CJI said, “No please, then go to the Competition Commission of India …”

The PIL had also made the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel as respondents. 

As per TRAI’s latest data for the month of November 2024, Jio’s market share in the wireless segment stood at 40.15% and Airtel was second placed at 33.45%. The two were followed by Vodafone Idea (Vi) and BSNL with 18.19% and 8.03% market share, respectively.

This comes a week after Vi CEO Akshaya Moondra, during a post-earnings call, said that current ‘return on capital’ metrics in the Indian telecom sector justifies a shorter, even nine-month time gap between two rounds of tariff hikes, against an “ideal” 12-month duration. Industry titans Jio, Airtel and Vi last raised tariffs in July 2024 in the range of 10% to 27%.

In August last year, telecom minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said that tariff hikes were necessary as the telcos have to see a return on their heavy capex in building their operations. 

Defending his stance, he had then said that India continues to have one of the lowest tariffs globally, adding that telecom operators have invested INR 4.26 Lakh Cr over the last three years.