Page 1

JUDGMENT

1

REPORTABLE

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA

CIVIL ORIGINAL JURISDICTION

WRIT

PETITION

(CIVIL)

NO.

285

OF

2010

Avishek Goenka

… Petitioner

Versus

Union of India & Anr.

… Respondents

J U D G M

E N T

Swatanter

Kumar,

J .

1.

The petitioner is a businessman engaged in the business

of distribution of pre-paid virtual and tangible calling value for

mobile phone subscribers and also sells new customer

acquisition packs and follows it up, by collection of customer

application forms and executing tele-calling, to verify customer

credentials. In this Public Interest Litigation, the petitioner

has attempted to highlight the grave issue of non-observance

of norms/regulations/guidelines related to proper and effective

subscriber verification by various service providers. In fact,

according to the petitioner, there is rampant flouting of

norms/regulations/guidelines relating to this subject matter

and there is no proper verification of the subscribers prior to

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JUDGMENT

2

selling of the pre-paid mobile connections to them.

2.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (for short,