Telecom Industry Seeks Open Court Hearing of their Plea in Supreme Court

Telecom majors, including Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea, sought an open court hearing of their plea seeking review of certain directions of the Supreme Court on recovery of past dues amounting to Rs 1.47 lakh crore from telecom service providers.

The recovery of past dues by the government was based on adjusted gross revenue of about Rs 92,000 crore.

The plea seeking an open court hearing was mentioned before a bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra, who said he will talk to Chief justice S A Bobde and decide accordingly.

The apex court had on last year October 24 upheld the AGR definition formulated by the Department of Telecom (DoT) and termed as "frivolous" the nature of objections raised by telecom service providers.

Bharti Airtel, in its plea, had sought review of the directions on aspects of levy of interest, penalty and interest on penalty relating to AGR, a source related to the development had said.