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Glossary · Compliance and messaging

DND and NDNC

DND and NDNC: The do-not-disturb registry in India, which lets a subscriber block unsolicited commercial calls and messages, and which businesses must respect when making promotional contact.

Definitions checked 4 September 2026.

The do-not-disturb registry, historically also called the national do-not-call registry, lets mobile subscribers refuse unsolicited commercial communication, either entirely or by category. It is a subscriber-facing control with a business-facing obligation: a company running promotional calling is responsible for not calling registered numbers, and the penalties attach to the business rather than to the caller personally.

The important distinction is between promotional and transactional or service communication. Calling somebody about an enquiry they made, a service they hold or a transaction in progress is ordinary business communication. Calling a stranger to promote something is exactly what the registry restricts, which is why buying a list and dialing it is the risky pattern rather than calling your own customers.

Practical hygiene is simple: work your own enquiries rather than purchased lists, keep records of every call, which any calling CRM does automatically, and honour a do-not-call request the moment it is made by marking the record so nobody rings that person again.

Check this yourself

  • Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (opens their site)

    The regulator itself. Registration rules, the commercial communication regulations and the current penalties are published here, and this is the page to trust over any summary of it, including ours.

DND and NDNC: common questions

Can I call a customer who is on the do-not-disturb list?

For service and transactional matters relating to their own dealings with you, generally yes. For unsolicited promotion, no. If in doubt, treat the contact as promotional.

How do I honour a do-not-call request?

Mark the record immediately so it is excluded from lists and campaigns, and make sure the exclusion applies to messaging as well as calling.

Calling within the rules, in practice rather than in theory

Updated 30 May 2026

What businesses actually ask about DND

Can I call somebody who is on the DND list?

For service and transactional matters arising from their own dealings with you, generally yes. For unrequested promotion, no. The distinction is the purpose of the call rather than the tool that placed it, and the obligation sits with the business making the call, not the software vendor.

Is calling my own enquiries covered by DND?

Ringing back somebody who submitted an enquiry to you is ordinary business communication rather than unsolicited promotion. That is the single most useful thing to understand here, because a great deal of nervousness in Indian calling teams comes from assuming otherwise and then working leads too slowly.

How do I honour a do-not-call request properly?

Mark the record the moment it is made, so the number is excluded from every future list and campaign, and make sure the exclusion holds when the list is next imported rather than being applied by hand each time. A request honoured once and forgotten on the next upload is worse than not recording it at all.

Who is responsible if a caller breaks the rules?

The business making the calls. Software does not carry the obligation, which is why buying a compliant-sounding tool changes nothing on its own. What a tool can do is keep the record of every call and hold the exclusions, so that you can show what happened.

What records should I keep?

Every call, its time and duration, who made it, the outcome, and any request not to be contacted again. That set answers most questions anybody is likely to ask you later, and it is a by-product of using a calling CRM properly rather than extra work.

The facts worth lifting

  • The DND obligation sits with the business making the calls, not with the software that placed them.
  • Service and transactional calls arising from a customer own dealings are treated differently from unrequested promotion.
  • Calling back somebody who submitted an enquiry to you is ordinary business communication.
  • A do-not-call request must survive the next list import, not just the day it was made.
  • The records worth keeping are the call, its time and duration, who made it, the outcome, and any opt-out.

Three practical positions

You work only your own enquiries.

Call with confidence, and keep records. This is the situation the rules were never aimed at. What matters is that you can show the enquiry existed and that opt-outs were honoured.

Somebody offers you a purchased list.

Treat it as a liability. A bought list is unrequested promotion by definition, the obligation lands on you rather than the seller, and the numbers convert worse than the enquiries you already have sitting uncalled.

You are unsure whether a campaign counts as promotion.

Read the regulator own pages. This page is a working summary written by a software company. The authority on the answer is the regulator, and the link is on the term page above.

How this page is sourced

  • The description follows the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India published position on unsolicited commercial communication and the preference register.
  • The term page above links to the regulator directly, which is the source to trust over any summary including this one.

What this page does not claim

  • Nothing here is legal advice and we are not qualified to give it. This is a working summary for people running calling teams.
  • Rules and penalties in this area are revised. If the date above is not recent, check the regulator own pages before relying on any of it.

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