The Supreme Court has given a big blow to those customers who keep changing prepaid mobile numbers frequently. Now after 90 days of their number being deactivated or switched off, the service provider can give that number to someone else.
Most of such people only kept the mobile number with them and recharged it whenever needed. The Supreme Court, while hearing a case, said that mobile phone service provider companies can issue that number to a new customer after the expiry of the statutory period of 90 days. We cannot stop the mobile service provider company from doing this. It is up to the former customer to delete his/her data shared on WhatsApp or anywhere else. A petition was filed in the Supreme Court by lawyer Rajeshwari.
In this petition, a demand was made to order the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to stop the mobile service provider company from issuing inactive mobile numbers to new customers. Regarding this, Supreme Court lawyer Sanjay Kapoor said in the court that the process of reallocating closed mobile numbers is related to the administration of ‘numbering resources’. It comes under the Department of Telecommunications.
Secure your data within 90 days Former Customer
Hearing the petition of lawyer Rajeshwari, the bench of Justices Sanjeev Khanna and SVN Bhatti said that the court is not willing to proceed with the writ petition. Citing the affidavit filed by TRAI, the court said that it is clear that the mobile telephone number was deactivated due to not being used even once or was disconnected on request. It is also stated in the affidavit that the blocked number is not issued to any other customer for 90 days.
In such a situation, it is the responsibility of the previous customer to take adequate steps and maintain the privacy related to the number. In the court, concern was expressed on behalf of the petitioner over the confidential data related to the number. On this, the bench said that the former customer can completely stop the misuse of WhatsApp data by deleting the WhatsApp account linked to the previous one. This also includes deleting phone numbers and WhatsApp data stored on local device memory/cloud/drive.
What did trai say
TRAI informed in its affidavit filed in the Supreme Court that DoT had given two instructions in April 2017. It was ordered that the cellular mobile telephone connection of a subscriber which is deactivated for non-use at the request of the subscriber shall not be allotted to any other subscriber. It was told that after a period of 90 days from the date of closure of the mobile number, it will be issued to another person.
