Sify Broadband Loses Case In Consumer Courts, Unfair Trade Practices Cited

This is arguably the most important judgment in recent times. Ankur Raheja has won a case in the consumer court against Sify Broadband on grounds of deficiency in service.

The judgment was delivered on 18th October. I would like to quote directly from the write up on Sify.

Sify Broadband to pay for unfair trade practices.

The case related to non disclosure of significant terms and conditions, which included hidden conditions that after downloading of 750 MB data in a month the speed would be reduced to 14 Kbps and also a new condition that if a customer downloaded more than 150 MB data in a day, then he was penalized in the form of reduction of package validity by one day, but still packages were advertised as unlimited.

This is a landmark judgment as for the first time technical deficiency has been proved in the court of law in India against an Internet Company. And further Court interpreted the matter from the point of view of definition of Broadband as laid down by TRAI, which lays down criterion of minimum speed of 256 Kbps to be regarded as Broadband. Accordingly, Court has held providing of 14 Kbps speed instead of 256 Kbps is in itself a deficiency in service.

The case was supported in the Cyber World by hundreds of SIFY customers from all over India, who all experienced similar problems and supported the case throughout, whose testimonials were also included in the original complaint as Annexure!

The last paragraph assumes significance. We rallied together and challenged BSNL to introduce unlimited plans. Even though it is a watered down offering, still it was a victory of all sorts for us to fight the ISPs and demand what we want and not what they want to give.

Unfortunately, public activism is limited to the Medha Patkars of the world who otherwise have their own hidden agendas to propagate. If we all take it lying down, they would f*** us royally like they have been doing for so many years.

The Sify Case has evoked strong reactions. Another quote from Ankur's post on thebroadband forum:

It has been held that concealing hidden conditions and not redressing the grievances of the complainant who made complaints with regard to poor customer service on number of occasions, in our considered opinion, amounts to deficiency in service on the part of Opposite Party and indulging in to Unfair Trade Practice.

We, therefore, direct the opposite party to refund the amount of Rs 1,200/-, paid for two months by the complainant along with compensation to the tune of Rs 5,000/- for causing mental agony and harassment to the complainant and further, pay a sum of Rs 2,000/- towards cost of litigation to the complainant.

I want to know as to how to kick BSNL's ass. TRAI is ineffectual in enforcing its own guidelines and till recently they were operating from an illegal building. The Government violating its own rules! For the time being, this judgment can be quoted across the nation and Sify Broadband has a potential disaster brewing for them. I am forwarding the details of the judgement to news organizations and I hope this gains widespread publicity. Either Sify Broadband renegotiates its contract with its subscribers or refunds the money taken from them by fraudulent means. This is cheating. Plain cheating.

Oh, by the way, I forgot to mention that in the recent Blog Camp in Madras, the WiFi connectivity was provided by Sify Broadband. Basically it was a legion of idiots milling around trying to make themselves important. Interestingly, no one mentioned the company sponsoring their internet connection about being the target of what arguably was the first blog specifically targeting a company and its ill doings. It was borne out of frustration from the pathetic access speeds and their high handedness.

Guys, it's time to kick their asses.