Contempt of court charge against BTRC chairman, telecom secy

13 July 2010, 18:00 PM

Staff Correspondent

Land phone company RanksTel has filed a contempt of court petition with the High Court (HC) against the chairman of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) and the secretary to the ministry of post and telecommunications on charge of violating its (HC) directive. The HC on May 11 in a verdict directed the BTRC and government authorities to appoint an administrator to run operation of RanksTel, which the BTRC had shut down in March this year on charges of running illegal Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) business. The higher court also asked the authorities to decide within seven days whether they will cancel the licence of the company. If they decide to cancel the licence of the company, the court asked them to appoint an administrator to run it. The authorities have cancelled the licence, but did not appoint an administrator for running the company. The RanksTel authorities on Monday filed the contempt of court petition against the BTRC boss and telecommunication secretary for not appointing the administrator as per the HC order. Barrister Shakhawat Hossain told The Daily Star that the HC might hold hearing on the petition today (Wednesday).