The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has sought legal opinion on imposing penalty on Uninor for the alleged violation of the licencing norms in the Mumbai circle. According to DoT, Unitech Wireless (Mumbai) Limited which held Uninor?s licence in the Mumbai circle was not eligible to receive a unified access service licence as the provisioning of telecom access services was not part of the object clause(s) of the company?s Memorandum of Association on the date of application i.e. September 24, 2007.
Subsequently, Uninor?s Mumbai licence along with other 21 2G licences was cancelled by the Supreme Court order in February 2012 in 2G case. Following the cancellation of its licence, Uninor shut down its operations in the Mumbai circle. DoT is now examining the possibility of imposing a penalty on Unitech Wireless (Mumbai), formerly known as Unitech Infrastructure Limited.
DoT has referred the matter to legal advisor (telecom) for an opinion on whether it is legally tenable to issue a show-cause notice to Unitech Wireless (Mumbai) Limited for imposing a financial penalty under Clause 10.2 (ii) of the licence agreement for violations committed by the licensee at the time of signing the licence agreement.
