Appeal, Mediation and the Voluntary Undertaking

In one line

Appeals go to the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal within sixty days, its orders are executable as a decree, the Board may send a complaint to mediation, and a voluntary undertaking accepted by the Board bars proceedings on the matter it covers.

Section 29: appeal to the Appellate Tribunal

Who and where. "Any person aggrieved by an order or direction made by the Board under this Act may prefer an appeal before the Appellate Tribunal."

Section 2(a) defines the Appellate Tribunal as the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal established under section 14 of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Act, 1997, and section 44(1) amended section 14(c) of that Act to add this Act to its jurisdiction. Chapter 1200.

A telecom tribunal hearing data protection appeals is an odd fit, and the point is worth making. The reason is institutional economy: the Tribunals Reforms Act, 2021 abolished a set of specialist tribunals, chapter 850, and Parliament has since preferred to load new jurisdictions onto surviving bodies rather than create new ones.

Sub-section (2): time and form. Within sixty days from the date of receipt of the order or direction, in such form and manner and with such fee as may be prescribed.

Sixty days from receipt, not from the date of the order.

Sub-section (3): condonation. The Tribunal may entertain a late appeal if satisfied that there was sufficient cause for not filing in time. No outer limit is fixed.

Sub-section (4): powers. After giving the parties an opportunity of being heard, the Tribunal may pass such orders as it thinks fit, confirming, modifying or setting aside the order appealed against.

Note what is absent: a power to remit. The three verbs are confirm, modify and set aside.

Sub-section (5): a copy of every order goes to the Board and to the parties.

Sub-sections (6) and (7): the six-month endeavour. The appeal shall be dealt with as expeditiously as possible, with an endeavour to dispose of it finally within six months from presentation; and where it cannot be, the Tribunal shall record its reasons in writing.

This is a directory provision with an accountability mechanism, and the same device appears in several modern Indian statutes: not a hard deadline, but a duty to explain the delay.

Sub-section (8): procedure. Without prejudice to sections 14A and 16 of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Act, 1997, the Tribunal shall deal with an appeal in accordance with such procedure as may be prescribed.

Sub-section (9): the further appeal. Where an appeal is filed against the Tribunal's orders under this Act, section 18 of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Act, 1997 applies.