Consumer court passes order to restore telephone line of former SMB Chairman

Nov. 13: Eminent advocate & former Chairman of Silchar Municipal Board (SMB), Niharendra Narayan Thakur lodged a complaint against BSNL for restoration of Landline Telephone connection which was disconnected for non-payment of outstanding bills. In the complaint filed on 4 March, 2020, Mr Thakur alleged that his telephone connection was disconnected on 1 September, 2019. In his complaint, the former Chairman stated that he did not receive any hard copy of the bill for his landline telephone since April, 2019. In his correspondence with BSNL, Mr. Thakur stated that he is ready to make payment of all outstanding bills, if paper bills are served to him.

Inspite of repeated requests, when BSNL did not restore his telephone connection, Niharendra Narayan Thakur then wrote a letter to Ravi Shankar Prasad Union Minister of Information Technology and Communications. The Minister inturn forwarded the said letter to the General Manager, Assam telecom Circle, BSNL. The General Manager in his reply stated that paper bill was stopped sending to Mr. Thakur only after getting his consent. However, to his utter surprise, Mr. Thakur said that BSNL has never taken his consent to stop sending paper bills and send e-bills in its place.

After long months of wait since the filing of the complaint, when BSNL did nothing to mitigate the issue, Niharendra Narayan Thakur filed a separate petition to the District Consumer Forum for redress of his grievance. During the hearing, BSNL could not establish their claim of seeking the consent of the complainant for stopping paper bills and sending e-bills instead. He was represented by Advocate Joydeep Biswas in the Forum. Expressing his views, he said that it is not always possible for a senior citizen to access e-mails etc always and so stopping sending paper bills without the consent of the consumer is legally not tenable.

It is in this backdrop that the District Consumer Redressal Forum, Cachar on Thursday regarded the matter as a fit case to grant interim relief to the complainant Niharendra Narayan Thakur as prayed for. As such, the Forum directed BSNL to resume the landline of Mr. Thakur and issue monthly bill with all outstanding. The complainant was also directed to pay all outstanding dues within 7 days of receiving the telephone bill. The Forum further mentioned that if the complainant fails to settle the dues within 7 days then BSNL can again disconnect his landline.