Vibhu Bakhru ORDER
Vibhu Bakhru, J.
1. The petitioners have filed the present petition, inter alia, praying as under:-
"(a) Call for the records of the case;
(b) Issue an appropriate Writ, order and/or direction including an order, direction or writ in the nature of mandamus under Articles 226/227 of the Constitution directing the Respondent TRAI to forthwith provide to/share with the Petitioners the cost model proposed to be used in deciding/determining IUC and particularly MTC/issuance of the IUC Regulation;
(c) Direct TRAI not to proceed with the present consultation process and/or issue any Regulation, pursuant to its Consultation Paper dated 05.08.2016, without first providing/sharing the proposed cost models to the Petitioners and without first considering and examining the Petitioners comments/inputs thereon and further to provide reasons for disagreement thereto, if any;
(d) pass ad-interim/interim/ex-parte order(s) in respect of the above payers; and"
2. The petitioners have been granted Unified Access Services/Unified Licences under Section 4 of the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885 for establishing and maintaining telecommunication services in various service areas. In terms of the unified licence, the petitioners are obliged to interconnect with other telecom service providers at Point of Interconnection (POI) subject to compliance of prevailing regulations and directions issued by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). The Unified Licence further provides that the charges for accessing other networks for inter-networks calls would conform to the orders/regulations/guidelines issued by the TRAI/licensor from time to time. Article 27.5 of the Unified Licence, inter alia, provides that "the charges for accessing other networks for inter-network calls shall be based on mutual agreements between the service providers conforming to the Orders/IUC Regulations/Guidelines issued by the TRAI from time to time".
3. In terms of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Act, 1997 (hereafter 'the Act'), the TRAI is empowered to fix the terms and conditions of inter-connectivity including Mobile Termination Charges (MTC). Mobile Termination Charges are charges payable by the service provider whose subscriber originates the call to the access provider in whose network the call terminates. Thus, fixing of MTC is of vital importance to the business of the petitioners.
4. In terms of Section 11(1)(b)(ii) of the Act, TRAI is charged with the function to fix the terms and conditions of interconnectivity between service providers and also to regulate the arrangement amongst service provider for sharing the revenue derived from providing telecom services. The relevant clauses of Section 11(b) of the Act are set out below:-
"11. Functions of Authority
(1) Notwithstanding anything contained in the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885, the functions of the Authority shall to be -
(a) xxxx xxxx xxxx
(b) discharge the following functions, namely:-
(i) ensure compliance of terms and conditions of licence;
(ii) notwithstanding anything contained in the terms and conditions of the licence granted before the commencement of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Amendment) Act, 2000, the fix the terms and conditions of inter-connectivity between the Service Providers;
(iii) ensure technical compatibility and effective inter connection between different Service Providers;
(iv) regulate arrangement amongst........