The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has noticed that Vodafone has rejected mobile number portability request of many of its subscribers for reasons that are not justified.

"Majority of porting rejections have been primarily of the ground of contractual obligation; however, customers complained that they did not enter into such agreement with Vodafone," TRAI said in its direction issued.

Under MNP regulations, a mobile subscriber can change its service provider without changing number.

TRAI found that when complaints were forwarded to Vodafone, such customers were allowed to be ported out (leave Vodafone network).

"...therefore, such rejection of the ground of contractual obligation by Vodafone is not in compliance," TRAI said.

On May 24, TRAI has further issued broad directions on contractual obligation which says telecom operators should not reject MNP request if the amount of subscriber due is less than Rs 10.

It also said that MNP request can be rejected if the customer has post-paid connection with bundled handset and the subscriber has not complied with the exit condition of the deal.

TRAI has given seven days time to Vodafone to comply with the direction.

Queries sent to Vodafone remained unanswered.