MTNL officials will pay for data error.

Byline: Snigdha Sen

: If an official errs with data and the company is taken to court, who pays for deficiency in service? In a recent judgment against Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL), a consumer court has asked the service provider to deduct the compensation amount from the salary of the officials responsible for wrong data entry which caused prolonged harassment to a consumer.

In 1998, B V K Ahluwalia, a resident of Vashisht Park Colony, had applied to the MTNL's Janakpuri exchange for the phone in his mother's name to be transferred to his. He also applied for the phone to be transferred to his new Pandav Nagar residence, under Lakshmi Nagar exchange. Ahluwalia claimed he had cleared dues and paid Rs 105 as transfer charges to MTNL in October 1998.

But when the instrument was installed at his residence, it did not work. When Ahluwalia complained, he was told that his exchange transfer clearance was yet to be released and his telephone would be activated ones the clearance came through.

By this time, his original Janakpuri number was shifted to the new Dwarka exchange. Ahluwalia was asked to obtain a fresh booking order, which he did. In January 1999, Ahluwalia was informed that his phone could not be transferred because the booking order was in Ahluwalia's name, while according to the Dwarka ...