The Supreme Court today has dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) that sought to regulate internet prices. The apex Court, however, granted liberty to the petitioner to seek alternative statutory remedies. A bench led by Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar was hearing the PIL filed by Rajat. The petitioner had also made the Department of Telecommunication (DoT), Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel as the respondents in his petition.
The bench said that consumers have multiple options for availing internet services. “It’s a free market and there is a local area network, you get wired internet, BSNL and MTNL are also giving you the internet.”
To this, the petitioner, who was arguing in person (petitioner-in-person), that while other options may be available, the majority of the market chunk is presently with Reliance Jio. “They are giving, but see the market share of your lordship- 80% of the market share is with Jio (Reliance),” he said.
The CJI however interjected, saying that if you are hinting at cartelisation then go to the Competition Commission of India. He said, “No please, then go to the Competition Commission of India …”
The bench while dismissing the petition, passed the following order:
“We are not inclined to entertain the present petition under Article 32 of the Constitution of India, petition is dismissed. 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.”