PANAJI, Sept 28: The simplest of the people, whether a villager from Tamil Nadu or a mobile repairer in Goa, should be made aware of their rights in the telecom sector, said Chief Justice of Bombay High Court Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya on Saturday.
He suggested that the Bar associations take this initiative so that complaints of the common public can be raised before the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT).
Justice Upadhyaya was addressing a seminar on ‘Mechanism for Resolution of Disputes in Telecom and Broadcasting and Cyber Sectors’ in North Goa. Bombay HC judges Justice Nitin Jamdar, Justice M S Karnik and Justice Navin Chawla were also present on the occasion.
“So far as adjudication of issues coming before the tribunal is concerned, there are laws and rules. Since the very nature of dispute is at its nascent stage, the adjuratory bodies like tribunals are also in their nascent stage and are ever developing,” he said.
Justice Upadhyaya said that since lawyers and members of TDSAT are well-versed in the rules, laws and legal nuances of the sector, they should guide people as per the old principles of the dispensation of justice: equity, fairness and good conscious.
“This role now, though it is forgotten in the court system, I would emphasise that the members of the tribunal stick to these basic principles of dispensation of justice,” he said.
Justice Upadhyaya said that the disputes coming up for adjudication before the TDSAT concern so many matters and they could affect anybody sitting in a village of Tamil Nadu or a person having a mobile repair shop in Goa.
“How to make the mobile repairer aware about his rights? I would request Telecom Bar Association that apart from discussing the legal aspects coming up before TDSAT, perhaps you should go to the Bar associations in different parts of the country and have discussions so that they can also make themselves aware about remedies available to them (public) under this law,” he commented.
Justice Upadhyaya said that a simple person having a mobile phone repair shop can also fight for his rights before these forums, which must be made known to him, and a kind of awareness programme must be taken up by Bar associations. (PTI)
