Delhi HC sends contempt notice to Vodafone

Acting on a complaint issued by Matrix Cellular, the Delhi HC issued a contempt notice to the popular mobile service provider in the country, Vodafone Essar. The Delhi HC issued this notice through its members - Mr. Marten Pieters, Mr. Sanjoy Mukerji, Mr. Rajiv Kohli, Ms. Shaina Subramaniam and Ms. Monika Pathak. Matrix Cellular had alleged that Vodafone had “stolen its corporate identity and hijacked its business”. According to an official statement received, “Matrix Cellular had approached the High Court suing Vodafone for Stealing its property – Matrix Helpline Number – 9811188888, (which is in the name of Matrix since 2002), for illegally representing it to be their own, illegal termination notice, theft of Corporate Identity, its entire customer base and No Accessibility of CRM to Matrix, all in a matter of a few hours.”

Received contempt notice from the Delhi HC

The Delhi HC (Justice S Muralidar) has now directed Vodafone to restore all services to the above mentioned number, which it states originally belongs to Matrix Cellular and make it operational as it was on October 13, 2011. Till the 13th of October, 2011, Matrix Cellular had an agreement with Vodafone, which got terminated. 

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Further, according to the official statement received, Vodafone Essar was not to introduce any changes to the consolidated subscriber base owned by Matrix for a period of 2 months from the termination date. The HC, too filed a notice to this effect. It is being learnt that Vodafone did not comply to this, which then invited Matrix’s contempt notice. 

The petition was heard on the 15th November, 2011 in the presence of Justice Vipin Sanghi who then issued the contempt petition.