Even on the charges of tampering Caller Line Identification, Reliance's counsel Harish Salve said, "More than 40 per cent of the ISD calls do not have proper CLI and in such calls there is a directive from the government to operators to put their own switch numbers for identifying the details of such calls like origination."
Arguing before the telecom dispute appellate tribunal TDSAT challenging government's decision to impose Rs 150 crore (Rs 1.5 billion) penalty for violating the licence by illegally rerouting of ISD calls, Salve said CLI was a weak measure of security concern as in large number of calls CLI does not come through and thus termed Government's allegation that this could pose a security threat as "bogey".
TDSAT will hear the argument of both parties -- Reliance and department of telecom-- till February 11 and is likely to pronounce the judgement after the arguments are over.
Even the PSU, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited, which does not own ILD licence, uses the HCD service to offer operator assisted international calls, he added.