Section 19 in The Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations, 2010
19. Setting up of customer complaint registration facility. -(1) Every Access Provider shall set up a facility for registration of the complaint of the customer regarding receipt of unsolicited commercial communications.
(2)The facility set up under sub-regulation (1) shall have short code 1909: Provided that the Authority may specify any other short code, which is assigned by the licensor, from time-to-time;(3)The customer complaint registration facility shall be toll free and shall have adequate telecom resources for receipt of customer complaints by way of a voice call or SMS.(4)In case any subscriber receives unsolicited commercial communication after expiry of seven days from the date of his registration in the Provider Customer Preference Register under sub-regulation (1) of regulation 7, he may make a complaint to his Access Provider, through voice call or SMS, mentioning therein the particulars of telemarketer, the telephone number from which the unsolicited commercial communication originated, the date, time and brief description of such unsolicited commercial communication as specified in Schedule VI to these regulations: Provided that every such complaint shall be made by a subscriber within three days of receipt of the unsolicited commercial communication.(5)On receipt of a complaint under sub-regulation (4), the Terminating Access Provider shall,-(a) immediately acknowledge the complaint by providing a unique complaint number;(b)verify whether, at the time of complaint, a period of seven days has expired from the date of registration of the subscriber in the Provider Customer Preference Register;(c)verify the correctness of the complaint as per the available Call Detail Record (CDR); and(d)complete the steps at (b) and (c) within seventy-two hours from receipt of the complaint.(6)If, on verification, the complaint is found to be correct, the Terminating Access Provider shall, within seventy-two hours of the receipt of the complaint, forward the complaint, under simultaneous transmission to the National Telemarketer Register, to the Originating Access Provider from whose network such unsolicited commercial communication has originated.(7)In case, on verification, the Terminating Access Provider finds that no such unsolicited commercial communication has been made to the complainant, he shall inform the complainant accordingly.(8)The Originating Access Provider, to whom the complaint has been forwarded, shall within seventy-two hours of the receipt of the complaint by it, investigate the nature of call or SMS and if after such investigation, it finds that such call or SMS is an unsolicited commercial communication-(a) issue a notice to the telemarketer, forwarding the detail of the unsolicited commercial communication made by him and informing him of the deduction from the security deposit of an amount as agreed upon in terms of Schedule IV or Schedule V to these regulations;(b)intimate, the result of the investigation and the action taken by it on the basis of the complaint, to the Terminating Access Provider which forwarded the complaint;(c)deposit the amount so deducted in an account specified by the Authority; and(d)update the action taken by it in the National Telemarketer register.(9)The Terminating Access Provider shall, upon receipt of the intimation from the Originating Access Provider under sub-regulation (8), intimate to the complainant, within twenty-four hours, the result of the investigation and the action taken by the Originating Access Provider on his complaint.(10)Notwithstanding any delay on the part of the Terminating Access Provider to forward the complaint, as stipulated in the sub-regulation (6), to the Originating Access Provider, it shall be incumbent upon the Originating Access Provider to take action on such complaint in accordance with the provisions of sub-regulation (8).(11)In case the Originating Access Provider to whom a complaint has been forwarded under sub-regulation (6) finds that the unsolicited commercial communication originated from a subscriber who is not registered with the Authority as a telemarketer, it shall issue a notice to such subscriber to forthwith discontinue the sending of such unsolicited commercial communications and if such subscriber sends a commercial communication to any subscriber on a second occasion, disconnect the telecom resources of such subscriber.
