SC rejects telcos’ plea for new schedule for AGR payments, slams DoT
In a important setback for the telecom companies, the Supreme Courtroom on Friday turned down the plea in search of new timetable of AGR payments. Coming down seriously on the Office of Telecommunications (DoT) for not taking coercive action against telcos for failing to repay, the apex courtroom purchased contempt proceedings against Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Concept.
The following hearing has been scheduled for March seventeen.
The Apex Courtroom also pulled up the DoT desk officer who wrote to the Legal professional Normal asking him to not insist on payemnt of dues. The SC issued a contempt notice to the officer to demonstrate why no action ought to be initiated against him.
The courtroom summoned controlling director, director of all telcos which includes Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Concept and many others on March seventeen to demonstrate why these dues were not deposited inspite of orders and why contempt action need to not be taken against them for non-compliance of purchase.
A bench of justices Arun Mishra, S Abdul Nazeer and M R Shah heard a batch of petitions submitted by telecom companies in open courtroom.
ALSO Go through: Voda Concept dips 11% as SC rejects telcos’ plea for new timetable for AGR dues
Before on January 16, a bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra had dismissed evaluation petitions of telecom firms in search of evaluation of its earlier purchase asking them to pay Rs one.forty seven trillion in statutory dues by January 23, indicating it did not discover any “justifiable rationale” to entertain them.
The apex courtroom had on October 24 previous year dominated that the statutory dues will need to be calculated by which includes non-telecom revenues in AGR of telcos.
It had upheld the AGR definition formulated by the DoT and termed as “frivolous” the character of objections lifted by the telecom support providers.
In an affidavit submitted in the prime courtroom, DoT reported that according to calculations, Airtel owes Rs 21,682.13 crore as licence charge to the governing administration and dues from Vodafone totalled Rs 19,823.71 crore, whilst Reliance Communications owed a overall of Rs 16,456.forty seven crore. BSNL owed Rs 2,098.72 crore and MTNL Rs 2,537.forty eight crore.
“The definition of gross profits is crystal clear in the agreement. How the altered gross profits to be arrived at is also obvious. It are unable to be submitted that the profits has not been described in the deal. At the time the gross profits is described, 1 are unable to depart from it and the pretty meaning is to be given to the profits for the agreement,” the apex courtroom had reported in its October verdict.