The Delhi High Court has asked the Centre as well as the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to reply to the petition filed by the NGO – Telecom Watchdog, challenging the Central Government’s move limiting the number of SMS per day per SIM to 200. The reply is to be submitted within two weeks and the matter has been posted for next hearing on January 18.

The petitioners argued that limiting the number of SMS’s per day is violating the basic fundamental right of the individual, freedom of free speech and expression. They said that it was similar to recent move by the government to control the content being uploaded in the internet. There already exists a new stringent law to curb the bulk SMSes being sent by the telemarketers and therefore limiting the number of SMSes that can be sent per day has no logical justification behind it. Advocate Prashant Bhushan who filed the plea said that “the restriction is arbitrary, wholly unnecessary, violates people’s fundamental freedom and is anti-democracy.”

HC notice to Centre and TRAI regarding per day SMS cap

Report by Priyanka S Menon