The Supreme Court has refused the petition seeking direction to the Center to provide free unlimited calling, data usage and DTH facility. To prevent the spread of coronavirus, the central government has declared a lockdown till May 3 in the country.
That petition was about the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) should be directed to relax the terms of the license agreement given to DTH service providers. There was also a demand to provide free and unlimited viewing of channels and content. Apart from this, there was also a demand to provide the content of video streaming websites for free during the lockdown.
The petition stated that psychological pressure arising from imprisonment in homes during lockdown can be reduced through digital entertainment such as phone, video calling, social interaction and watching TV channels on DTH. According to the petition, most of the people who are away from their family and friends are living under severe psychological pressure.
The facility was sought from the Supreme Court to ease the psychological pressure of consumers during the lockdown continued till May 3 due to the covid-19 epidemic. Hearing the petition through video-conferencing, a bench of Justices NV Ramana, SK Kaul and BR Gavai stated what kind of petitions are being filed.
The petitioner and advocate Manohar Pratap told the bench that it would withdraw the petition, which also sought to direct the Health Ministry to take appropriate steps to deal with psychological pressure arising out of lockdown or quarantine.
