Court sets aside 200 SMSes cap

New Delhi, July 13 (IANS) The Delhi High Court Friday set aside the order of the telecom sector regulator capping SMSes at 200 per day per person for personal communications.

The court however, upheld the curb for unsolicited commercial communication (UCC) SMSes, saying: "The UCC massages disturb the recipients, intrude into their privacy and impose a cost in terms of time and efforts".

The court's direction came on a plea filed by NGO Telecom Watchdog against the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), challenging its imposition of a cap of 200 SMSes per day per person.

The NGO filling the petition through advocate Prashant Bhushan sought quashing of TRAI's order restricting the number of SMSes per day.

"The checks and measures already put in place under the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations, 2010, were adequate to curb the menace of unsolicited commercial communications," said the petition.

In an effort to curb pesky calls and SMSes, the TRAI had Sep 5 last year ordered telecom firms to limit the number of SMSes per day per SIM to 100. However, acting on a number of representations, the TRAI later enhanced the cap to 200.