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BENGALURU: A Bengalurean who received an exorbitant bill of Rs 2.09 lakh as she didn't switch off the mobile data during an overseas trip moved a consumer court against the service provider . However, her complaint was trashed, with the judges citing 'carelessness' on the woman's part.

Rekha (name changed), a resident of HSR Layout and employee of a private firm, travelled to Japan in May 2015 for two months. On her return to Bengaluru in July, she got a rude shock via an SMS which said her Airtel bill amounted to Rs 1,84,561 and she had to pay a total of Rs 2,09,662 within a few weeks.

Her husband rushed to the nearest Airtel outlet and was informed by executives that his spouse had consumed 277 MB of mobile data overseas , and the levy at Rs 6.50 per 10 KB required her to pay over Rs 2 lakh towards her postpaid connection.

However, Rekha claimed the bill was inflated by Airtel, pointing to a monthly credit limit of Rs 11,700 for her connection, which was taken under the My Plan Family 799 scheme. With Airtel demanding she pay the tariff for international roaming usage, the woman approached a consumer court on September 16, 2015, alleging deficiency of service and harassment by the telecom firm.

The Bengaluru Rural and Urban 1st Additional District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum heard the case for nearly two years, with Rekha and Airtel presenting their sides. The woman claimed she had contacted Airtel customer care prior to her Japan trip to activate an international roaming pack for her SIM. “But the customer care executive didn't bother to ask if I wanted the data to remain active through the tour. As I wasn't aware of the telecom operations, I assumed the data would remain inactive till I returned to India,“ said Rekha in her argument, stressing that she had hardly made or received calls overseas due to the high roaming tariff.

Airtel, in its counter argument, stated the customer had opted for international roaming and on such requests, data roaming also gets activated by default. “If the subscriber didn't need the internet facility, she should have switched off the mobile data. On roaming, even if the subscriber is not using internet, background applications supported by the data facility run automatically, and higher charges apply as per service providers in the region,“ stated Airtel's legal counsel.

Airtel claimed it had cautioned the complainant to turn off data due to the rising internet usage, but Rekha claimed she didn't receive the alerts during the trip. However, she didn't deny that she hadn't turned off the data.

