New Delhi, September 22
In order to put a check on unsolicited business calls or SMS to mobile phone users, the Centre has made registration for every telemarketer compulsory with a provision of fine up to Rs 50 crore for violation of the telemarketing licence agreements.
Detailed guidelines formulated by the Department of Telecom (DoT) on the direction of the Supreme Court, were placed before the apex court with a commitment that a three months’ time had been given for mandatory registration.
The Supreme Court had issued the direction to the government to formulate rules to check the menace of unsolicited business calls, which had attained the dimension of a virtual nuisance for the mobile users.
The DoT in its affidavit, placed before a Bench of Justices Tarun Chatterjee and Dalveer Bhandari, submitted that the guidelines had become effective from June 6 and August 31 was the last date to complete the formality of registration.
The registration fee for the content providers had been fixed at Rs 1,000 and it had been explicitly made clear that after August 31, the service providers “shall not provide telecom resources to the persons providing telemarketing service without registration.”
The National Informatics Centre (NIC) has been anuthorised to set up a “National Do Not Call (NDNC) registry and the telephone users who did not wish to receive the business calls or SMS, could register their phone numbers with telephone company with a request to put them on the NDNC registry.
The telemarketers were required to scrupulously follow the guidelines issued by the DoT or any other instructions issued by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on the unsolicited commercial calls, including providing the list of phones to be put in the NDNC category.
