“MTNL is clearly guilty of deficiency in service and is liable to withdraw the bill and also to compensate the complainant for causing harassment and mental agony,” North-West District Forum presided over by M S Sabharwal said.

Observing that the state-run company was “not justified” in sending the inflated bill to C R Nath without verifying its facts, the Forum asked MTNL to refund Rs 6,000 deposited by the complainant as security, and another Rs 3,000 in damages.

The Forum, also comprising Member G S Chaturvedi, has asked the company to withdraw the bill promptly and shell out the compensation amount within a month to Nath, a resident of Pitampura here.

Nath was asked to cough up for 296 phone calls he had allegedly made to Saudi Arabia in a fortnight between December, 2004 and January, 2005. He, however, rubbished MTNL’s claim, contending he had already surrendered the sim card on December 29, 2004 and hence, he could not have made calls since then.