The Attorney General of India, G.E. Vahanvati has said that the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) cannot bypass the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and make changes to the existing telecom licences without consulting the regulator.
Vahanvati also said that the final decision on any issue related to licences rested with the Centre. He added that the regulator has the right to fix and decide on the interconnection charges between operators.
Prior to this, Gopal Subramanium, Solicitor General of India, in his legal opinion had said that DoT could change the terms and conditions of the existing licences without consulting the regulator.
This opinion was given after DoT, under former Minister of Telecommunications and IT, A. Raja had asked the Ministry of Law and Justice for its views on TRAI?s demand that it be consulted on the issue of a uniform licence fee for the sector.
In response, TRAI submitted a joint opinion from former Supreme Court judge BP Jeevan Reddy and lawyer Harish N Slave, who said that DoT cannot make any modifications to the licences of existing operators without consulting TRAI. Reddy and Salve had also said that DoT must review the opinion given by the Solicitor General.
DoT then sent both sets of opinions back to the Ministry of law and Justice and asked it to take a final decision on the issue.
