M
ost of us are content to rapidly disconnect, let off a torrent of abuse, or at best send off a rapid fire of angry letters to a cellphone company when faced with unsolicited calls. But Supreme Court advocate Nivedita Sharma took a tougher route. In 2006, she sued Bharti Airtel, ICICI Bank, American Express and TRAI in a Delhi consumer court, from where her case travelled to the Delhi High Court. Sharma charged that these companies had breached their own confidentiality clauses by passing on data about her to third parties and also made unsolicited calls to her.Answer Back: It’s Her Calling Now
The story of a woman who did not take telemarketing harassment lying down but took action
It wasn’t an easy case to fight. “The companies had lined up top lawyers such as Harish Salve and Abhishek Manu Singhvi,” recalls Nivedita. Yet, despite failing to get the Rs 50 lakh compensation she had asked for, or a court-directed inquiry into the roots of data leakage, Nivedita was awarded Rs 50,000, becoming one of the few Indians to be compensated for telemarketing harassment. It has spurred her on into continuing the battle instead of giving up. Her next crusade is to launch a court battle against the National Do Not Call registry for abysmally failing to prevent unsolicited calls.
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