Delhi High Court Overturns CIC Order on TRAI's Role in RTI Requests

The Delhi High Court has overturned a Central Information Commission order that directed the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India to obtain information from a telecom service provider for a customer under the RTI Act. The court ruled that TRAI's mandate doesn't cover individual grievances or consumer disputes.

The Delhi High Court has set aside a Central Information Commission order that mandated the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to extract information from a phone service provider for a customer under the Right to Information Act.

Justice Sanjeev Narula clarified that TRAI's mandate is strictly confined to regulatory functions and doesn't include intervening in individual grievances or accessing customer-specific data solely for dissemination under the RTI framework. The court noted that the CIC's directive was overreaching and misplaced.

The court supported TRAI's argument that the CIC directive misunderstood the regulatory boundaries established by the TRAI Act. Furthermore, the court recognized the consumer's complaint, which highlighted significant issues of unsolicited commercial communications affecting a wide population.

(With inputs from agencies.)