HC notice to TRAI on IndiaMART plea over curbs on B2B calls to regulate spam
This story was originally published at 18:31 IST on 23 December 2025
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NEW DELHI – The Delhi High Court Tuesday issued a notice to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India and Department of Telecommunications on IndiaMART InterMESH Ltd.'s plea against the regulations on spam calls and messages that applied to business-to-business communication. Allowing the Cellular Operators Association of India to be impleaded as a party in the case, the high court listed IndiaMART's plea for hearing in March.
The petitioner has challenged Regulation 25 of TRAI Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations, 2018, which were amended in February. Regulation 25 mandates a complaint-driven and audit-based enforcement system to curb spam calls and messages. It empowers telecom access providers like Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. and Bharti Airtel Ltd. to investigate complaints, enforce, and, in cases of violation, blacklist senders to protect customer preferences.
The regulation states that access providers must maintain record of, and handle, complaints regarding unsolicited commercial communications from their customers and terminating providers. The regulation allows the regulator to conduct audits to verify the processes followed by access providers for registering and resolving complaints. Further, access providers are required to submit performance monitoring and compliance reports to the TRAI at specified intervals.
The petitioner said that the Regulation 25 unfairly treats legitimate business-to-business outreach as unsolicited communication and fails to distinguish between private individuals and business entities that voluntarily publish their contact details to receive commercial enquiries. Subjecting B2B communications to a complaint-driven regime violates constitutional guarantees of equality, free speech, and the right to trade under Indian Constitution, said the petitioner.
"Regulation 25 establishes a punitive, action-first regime wherein mere receipt of five complaints from 'unique recipients' within ten days triggers enterprise-wide suspension of telecom resources, followed by blacklisting and device-level blocking for up to one year. These drastic consequences are imposed prior to any meaningful hearing, with only a post-facto representation permitted," said the petitioner. It reverses the principles of natural justice and presumes guilt based on complaint volume alone, irrespective of the legitimacy, context, or motive behind the complaints, said the petitioner. Further, the penalties are manifestly disproportionate to the alleged infraction and excess powers have been granted to private telecom access providers.
Tuesday, the shares of IndiaMART InterMESH Ltd. ended 1.9% higher at INR 2,259.80 on the National Stock Exchange. End
Reported by Surya Tripathi
Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury
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