New Delhi, July 21 (PTI): A consumer court today ordered Hutch to pay Rs 30,000 to a subscriber, besides refunding Rs 45 that the cellular company charged for SMS services without delivering his messages.

“SMS means not only sending the message of the subscriber but the service charges can be taken only after the service is rendered by delivering the message.…” the court argued.

“To discontinue such unfair trade for all times to come, this forum orders that Hutch will not, henceforth, debit the subscriber with SMS charges until the message is delivered.”

The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum (North) said the complainant, Dharam Pal Gupta, went through “mental agony, harassment and torture by Hutch”.

The company was deficient in service and, therefore, “it will pay Rs 30,000 as compensation to the complainant for deficiency in service and insult”, it ordered.

On finding that Rs 45 was deducted from his credit balance despite repeated failure of SMS delivery, Gupta, with mobile connection number 9811525341, called Hutch’s customer care cell number 9811098110 on July 24, 2003.

A Hutch executive, Vicky, however, said he did not have time for grievances involving such a “trifle” amount and told Gupta he spends such amount daily on soft drinks, the customer said.

“Instead of redressing the complaint, the executive insulted the complainant, which was wholly unwarranted and speaks volumes about Hutch executives’ conduct in dealing with their subscribers,” the forum said.

The company contended that Gupta had used the SMS service for downloading ringtones from Yahoo and Indiatimes with SMS numbers 8243 and 8888, respectively, and he was charged for the same by those companies.

But the consumer court rejected this argument, saying the privity of contract that Gupta has was with Hutch and not with Yahoo or Indiatimes. The court said Hutch could not “absolve” itself of legal obligations to provide services to the subscriber merely because “it has arrangements with other companies for further transmitting the SMS”.

“We were taken aback that Hutch is charging for an SMS without actually delivering the message. This amounts to fleecing millions of its subscribers. How can Hutch charge for SMS without rendering any service to subscribers?” the forum asked.

The court ordered that henceforth, the display on the cell screen should show the time at which the message was sent and the time at which it was delivered. The charges shall be debited only after the time of delivery has been displayed as envisaged by Section 14 (f) of the Consumer Protection Act, it said.