DND registry and AI calling in India: rules, scrubbing and hours.

What is the DND registry, and what does it actually block?

“DND” is the everyday name for the preference system that TRAI built under the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations, 2018 (TCCCPR). It replaced the older single National Do Not Call list with a register of preferences. A subscriber can choose to block everything that needs explicit consent (“fully block”), block only promotional communication (“block promo”), or block individual sectors. Preferences are set by calling or texting 1909 or through TRAI's DND app, and they are enforced by the telecom operators, not by the person placing the call. The DND registry glossary entry gives the short definition. The TCCCPR entry covers the regulation itself.

This guide is about the call itself: who you may ring, in what category, when, and what to do with a refusal. It does not repeat how a business registers as a Principal Entity and registers headers and templates; that is covered in TRAI and DLT compliance for AI calling agents and the explainer on DLT registration.

How does scrubbing work in practice?

Scrubbing means checking a calling list against subscriber preferences and consents before any number is dialled. In the current architecture the check is not a file you download once. The operators run the preference and consent registers on the shared DLT platform and enforce them when a call is placed from your registered header or number series. For you, the practical steps are these.

1. Classify the campaign. Decide whether each call is promotional, service or transactional before you build the script. Mixed content is promotional, so a payment reminder that closes with an upsell becomes a promotional call.
2. Establish the consent basis. For promotional calls to numbers that have blocked the category, you need explicit consent recorded in the Consent Register. For service calls, the relationship has to be real and the content informational.
3. Use the right number resources. The 2025 amendment says commercial communication may only use registered headers or the special number series assigned for it, so a plain ten-digit mobile number is out. Promotional robo and autodialled calls go through 140 series numbers, and service and transactional automated calls through 1600 series. The number series glossary entry and the blog post on 140 vs 160 number series calls go deeper.
4. Declare A2P use. Tell your originating access provider in advance that you place A2P calls and which calling-line ranges you use.
5. Respect time bands. See the next section.
6. Honour refusals in the call and afterwards. If the person says stop, end the call, record the suppression and stop calling. A customer who revokes consent can opt in again, but the sender may re-acquire consent only after ninety days from the revocation.
7. Keep records. Keep the consent evidence, the template used and a call log. Complaints are made within seven days of receiving the call, so you need the record quickly.

What are the permitted calling hours?

People often quote 9am to 9pm. The TCCCPR text we reviewed does not set a single national clock. Instead, each subscriber can block time bands: midnight to 6am, 6am to 8am, 8am to 10am, then two-hour bands through to 6pm, 6pm to 9pm, and 9pm to midnight. The Schedule marks the bands from midnight to 10am and from 9pm to midnight as off by default for any subscriber who has set no preference. For a number with no preference registered, 10:00 to 21:00 local time is therefore the defensible default window, and customers who have blocked more bands narrow it. Transactional and service calls are not blocked by time band.

Sector rules can be stricter. Collections, for example, have their own conduct expectations from the regulator, and this guide does not cover them. Confirm the current schedule with TRAI before you fix a window, because TRAI can change the bands.

What are the penalties for ignoring DND?

The regulations work through the network. The access provider is the enforcer, and the financial disincentives written into the TCCCPR fall on access providers that fail to act, not on the sender. For a sender, the consequences are operational and they escalate. Under the 2025 amendment a complaint pattern of five or more unique recipients in ten days can lead to suspension of outgoing services while the case is investigated. A first violation can bar outgoing services across all access providers for fifteen days, and second and later violations can mean disconnection of all telecom resources for one year, blacklisting and blocking of the devices used. Misuse of headers or content templates can bring suspension within six hours and, if a telemarketer is responsible, disconnection for a year.

The September 2026 amendment tightens detection. Operators must use AI/ML systems to flag calling lines with a high probability of sending spam, share the flags through the DLT platform, and act against a sender on three unique complaints in ten days if its line is also flagged. Senders who have five or more flagged lines in ten days face investigation, KYC re-verification and graded action. Consumers also get a fifteen day appeal against the way a complaint was resolved. Parts of the amendment take effect thirty, sixty or ninety days after gazette publication, so check each against your operator.

How do I build a compliant AI outbound workflow?

A workable design separates three questions, and asks them in this order: may this number be called for this purpose, may it be called now, and what happens when the person says no.

• Before the campaign. Register your entity, headers and templates; declare A2P use and calling-line ranges; classify each use case; build the opt-out into the script; agree the disclosure that the caller is an AI.
• At dial time. Check the number against preferences and consent; apply the time band; place the call from the registered series that matches its class.
• During the call. Open with identity and purpose. If the call is promotional, offer the opt-out. If the person asks to stop, comply and log it. Keep promotional content out of service calls.
• After the call. Suppress revoked numbers, hold the ninety-day rule on re-asking, and keep consent and call records. If the call recorded personal data, the DPDP guide to call recording applies as well. TRAI's 2026 text states that nothing in the telecom rules exempts a sender from the DPDP Act.

For examples of calls that fall on the service side, such as order confirmation, see the e-commerce use case. For campaign-level pricing, see pricing.