‘Husband can face action if wife fails to pay phone bill’

Pay the phone bills of your wife and children on time or else you could end up losing the phone connections in your name — both at the residence and business establishment — the Supreme Court ruled on Monday. This means, a service provider will be within its right to deactivate the mobile or landline connections taken by parents if they fail to pay the bills of phones being used by their children.

However, a person can’t be held responsible for the unpaid bills of his working wife or children. In that case, the service provider will have to initiate individual proceedings against them to recover the dues, a bench comprising Justices H K Sema and Markandey Katju said.

The ruling came against one Surjit Singh, who had taken the fight against MTNL to the apex court after an unsuccessful bid in the Delhi high court to challenge the service provider’s decision to disconnect phones in his name at his residence in Rajouri Garden and his shop at Jama Masjid. Singh had failed to clear the dues against a phone in his wife’s name at his residence. Justice Katju, writing the judgment for the bench, said when the wife or children did not have an independent income, non-payment of dues by them could lead to disconnection of the phones in the name of the head of the family.

‘‘If there is a telephone line in the name of a minor child, and another in the name of the father, and both of them are living in the same house, then obviously the bills of the telephone line in the name of the minor child is being paid by the father. Hence, in our opinion, for non-payment of bills in the name of the minor child, the telephone line of the father can be disconnected,’’ the bench said.

‘‘Similarly, there can be a case where the husband and wife have independent sources of income and the wife is paying the bills of the telephone line in her name, whereas the husband is paying the bills of his own phone. In such a case, for non-payment of the bills of the wife, the telephone line of the husband cannot be disconnected,’’ it said. The court also upheld MTNL’s decision to disconnect not only the residence phone but also the one at the husband’s business set-up to coerce him to pay the dues against his wife’s telephone.

The Times of India 22 April 2008 P. 11 New Delhi
With thanks from The Time of India
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