Telecom space gets heated further, Vodafone drags Jio to Delhi HC

The multi-national telecommunications company, headquartered in London, dragged Reliance Jio Infocomm, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries, to the Delhi High Court late on Tuesday.

Vodafone said that the company is aggrieved by the free voice services provided by Reliance Jio and also alleged that it violates the tariff orders extended by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). The company in a petition before the HC also stated that the inter-connection usage (IUC) forms the floor price and as per TRAI tariff orders and no player can go below that. 

The company went on to say that by providing free voice calls to its customers and by extending to do so, Reliance Jio is trying to violate IUC norms and TRAI regulations. Not only this, Vodafone was also 'aggrieved' by TRAI's stand of allowing the alleged violation to continue. 

Reliance Jio, however, refuted to this and said that if Vodafone has objection with TRAI giving a clean chit to Reliance, then the matter should be challenged before the telecom disputes settlement appellate tribunal (TDSAT) as done by Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular. Following this, the court then posted the matter for hearing on February 27.