JUDGMENT :

Ranjan Gogoi, J.

Civil Appeal No. 8107 of 2010

1. The challenge in this appeal is to a judgment dated 11.02.2010 passed by the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal, New Delhi (hereinafter referred to as the ‘Tribunal’) by which the demand raised by the appellant BSNL on the respondent, Vodafone Essar Gujarat Limited, for alleged tampering with the Caller Line Identification (CLI) has been set aside by the learned Tribunal.

2. The facts in brief may be noticed at the outset. In the year 1996 the competent authority granted a license to one M/s. Fascel Limited (predecessor-in-interest of the respondent Vodafone) under Section 4(1) of the Telegraph Act, 1885. As the successor-in-interest of Fascel Limited, the respondent entered into an Interconnect Agreement with BSNL for the purpose of interconnecting its network with the BSNL. Under the aforesaid Agreement, the respondent was liable to pay access charges to BSNL for calls originating from its network and terminating in the BSNL’s network. Under the Agreement there was an obligation on the part of the respondent to transmit the authentic CLI for the purpose of levy of charges in terms of Agreement. CLI essential