Chhattisgarh HC directs the DoT to provide high speed internet access to broadband subscribers

The Chhattisgarh High Court has directed the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to provide high speed Internet facility to broadband users according to the national telecom policy. A division bench of Chief Justice TBN Radhakrishnan and Justice Sharad Gupta yesterday disposed of a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by social worker Dilip Kumar Bhandari, challenging the delay in revising the broadband speed in the country, the petitioners counsel Palash Tiwari said today. Bhandari had last year filed the PIL contending that the telecom authorities are ignoring the National Telecom Policy 2012 on revising existing broadband speed. The PIL said the policy clearly mentions about revising and increasing existing broadband speed to 2 Mbps by 2015, but the users are still getting normally 512 Kbps speed. At least 200 million broadband users in India are devoid of high Internet speed facility while several other countries are enjoying high speed data service, the lawyer said quoting the petition. The court had earlier issued notices to the DoT, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and the Telecom Enforcement Resources and Monitoring (TERM) seeking their replies on the issue, he said. During a hearing of the matter in the high court yesterday, Chhattisgarhs Additional Solicitor General N K Vyas presented the Union governments stand and assured the division bench that all users will be provided with high Internet speed by 2023, Tiwari said. Subsequently, the court disposed of the PIL and directed the DoT to soon provide high speed Internet facility to broadband users as per the national telecom policy.