A Supreme Court bench has said that the petition filed by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), challenging the order of the Telecom Disputes Settlement & Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) on whether the government can impose a 50 per cent penalty on two Tata Group telecom firms for delayed payment of licence fees was valid.
Prior to this, DoT had asked Tata Teleservices Maharashtra Limited and Tata Teleservices Limited to pay Rs 2 billion and Rs 420 million, respectively.
Passing an order on February 12, 2010, TDSAT had dismissed the demand notes issued by DoT questioning the validity of the licence agreement, which was unilaterllay modified by it after migration to UASL model.
The TDSAT had held that the licence conditions were not signed by the Tata group firms and that it would become effective only from November 14, 2003 when the amended licence was signed. TDSAT had also said that the demands made by DoT were neither fair, nor reasonable.
Challenging it, DoT had said it had the right to modify terms and conditions of the licence agreement in the public interest and TDSAT should look into that area. It added that the TDSAT failed to appreciate that the migration package was accepted by the respondent in pursuance of the same amended licence, executed on July 26, 2001, which was be binding on the parties when the same had been acted upon by the parties. It also questioned the TDSAT’s jurisdiction.
