While declining to put a stay on contempt proceedings against it in the State Consumer Commission on a subscribers’ complaint, the Delhi High Court (HC) came down heavily against ICICI Bank over resorting to unsolicited calls to market its products and services.

"Every day we get nuisance calls. What business you get out of such calls. Face the music for making nuisance calls," Justice Vikramjit Sen of the Division Bench which also has Justice S L Bhayana.

The petition filed by advocate Nivedita Sharma stated that she had been receiving calls from the ICICI bank despite a direction from the Commission to stop harassing consumers. Subsequent to her complaint, the commission in December 2006 imposed an exemplary cost of Rs 50 lakh (Rs 5 million) on the Airtel and Cellular Operators Association of India for their failure to control the pesky calls made by the telemarketers and banks.

The commission also imposed Rs 25 lakh (Rs 2.5 million) penalty, to be jointly paid by n the ICICI Bank and American Express Bank, for making repeated calls to the mobile users.

The commission had advised her to approach the court in case the harassment continued.