A public interest litigation seeking to quash hike in telecom tariff as well as reduction in the number of free calls from landline phones has been filed in the Kerala high court. It has also questioned the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's notification issued on January 24.

The petition, which is expected to come up before a division bench on Tuesday, is filed by Stephen George, the MLA from Kaduthuruthy constituency in Kottayam district.

Maintaining that the tariff revision is excessive and disproportionate, the petitioner has contended that the BSNL decision is arbitrary, illegal, violative of the Constitution and is motivated by extraneous considerations.

Alleging that the tariff hike and the reduction in free calls have been done to appease the private mobile phone companies, the petitioner said the Supreme Court had declared that the use of telephone and such other devices of communications was part of the fundamental right guaranteed to citizens under the Constitution of India.

As such the BSNL decision clearly infracted the right of expression guaranteed under Article 19 (1) (a), it added.

Seeking to quash the notification of Trai, the petition alleged that even the decision of the Trai appeared to be motivated by considerations other than public interest.

As a quasi-judicial body, Trai should be governed by public interest. The recommendations of Trai and the notification issued by it seem to be made without proper application of mind and without hearing the affected parties, it added.

Meanwhile, the All Kerala Telephone Consumers Action Council has threatened a statewide agitation if BSNL fails to reduce the hiked telephone charges. As part of the preparatory step of the proposed agitation, the Council has decided to send 100,000 protest cards to the prime minister.

Emphasising that telephone charges and the prices of electronic goods were declining all over the globe, the Council wondered how they could increase in India.

Alleging that the tariff revision had been done with a 'malafide' motive to support the private mobile phone operators, the council said the exorbitant hike would adversely affect and completely upset the monthly budget of numerous families.