SC Dismisses Plea For Free Calls, Data Usage Facilities During Lockdown

The plea also sought a direction to the health ministry to take the required steps to deal with psychological pressure mounting on individuals due to the lockdown or being kept in quarantine.

Representational Picture (AFP)

New Delhi:  The Supreme Court has trashed a plea seeking directions to the Centre and other authorities to ensure free unlimited calling, data usage, and Direct To Home (DTH) facilities for users to ease "psychological stress" during the nationwide lockdown. A bench of Justices N V Ramana, S K Kaul, and B R Gavai which was hearing the plea through video-conferencing apparently said, "What kind of petitions are being filed?" According to the PTI report, the petitioner, advocate Manohar Pratap, told the bench that he would withdraw the plea. The advocate has also sought a direction to the health ministry to take the required steps to deal with increasing psychological pressure on individuals due to the lockdown or being kept in quarantine. The plea had sought directions to the Centre and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to invoke relevant terms of agreement of licenses granted to DTH service providers and ask them to provide completely free and unlimited viewing facility of their channels and contents during the lockdown, which has been extended till May 3. During the 21-day nationwide lockdown, several telecom players have taken steps to help customers deal with this situation. In March, Reliance Jio has announced complimentary 100 minutes of calls and 100 text messages till 17 April. The company has said that users will continue to receive incoming calls even after the validity expires, according to a Livemint report. Earlier, even Airtel announced that it will extend its validity for users till 17 April. The telecom company claimed that it was doing so in order to serve its customers in low-income areas. Similarly, the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) decided that prepaid SIMs will not be discontinued till April 20. For outgoing calls, a ₹10 incentive has been provided automatically so that the poor and the needy people continue to work, according to ANI. And now BSNL has extended the validity of its ‘Work@Home’ promotional broadband plan until May 19, according to media reports. The plan was launched in March to offer free Internet access to BSNL landline customers. The plan provides up to 10Mbps download speeds with a cap of 5GB data on a daily basis to all BSNL landline subscribers to promote social distancing and encourage subscribers to work from home - limiting the spread of the coronavirus outbreak. A total number of novel coronavirus cases in India neared the 28000-mark on Monday with more than 800 deaths in India. The total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases rose to 27,892, including 20835 active cases and 6184.