CHIEF GENERAL MANAGER, CALCUTTA TELEPHONES vs P.B.CHOWDHURY

THIS is an appeal against the order dated 12.7.90 passed by the District Forum, Calcutta in CDF No. 79/90 filed by the respondent herein Mr. P.B. Chowdhury (hereinafter referred to as the subscriber) against the appellant herein the Chief General Manager, Calcutta Telephones.

THE case of the subscriber as made out by him in the complaint filed by him in the District Forum and in his oral submission before the Commission are in brief as follows : The subscriber is a retired member of the I.P.S. During his career as a Police Officer, he was always striving very hard to eradicate corruption in the Police Department and now after his retirement, he has taken arms against the misdeeds on the Calcutta Telephones for self and on behalf of lakhs of other telephone subscribers.

The main complaint of Mr. Chowdhury is that his telephone is being allowed to be used by corrupt subscribers in collusion with corrupt telephone employees which is a common practice. In proof of this allegation he alleges that the metered calls in his telephone bills for cycles 10/88,12/88,2/89 and 7/89 were respectively 389,278,292 and 278. However in cycle 6/89, metered calls jumped to 442 resulting in excess billing of about Rs. 136/ He again received bill for cycle 8/89 charging him for 99 extra local calls and for cycle 10/89 charging him for extra 117 calls.

ON the face of it the allegations made by the subscriber appear to be wild and baseless. No doubt the allegations of false billing are frequently made against the Calcutta Telephone and possibility of corruption cannot also be ruled out. But it is not at all believable that the alleged excess billing in this case was the result of corrupt practices. The alleged excess metering is as per the subscriber''s own allegations about two local calls per day. It is unbelievable that just for the sake of saving the charges for the two local calls per day, some corrupt subscriber will make some corrupt arrangement with some corrupt telephone employees. In view of the above, the decision of the District Forum, Calcutta reducing the amount of the telephone bills and giving various other directions is not tenable. However, if the subscriber so desires, he may apply to the authorities for referring the dispute raised by him to arbitration under Section 7B of the Indian Telegraphs Act and in case he so applied, the authorities will take the necessary action in accordance with law. Ordered accordingly.