The Madras High Court has directed Aircel to comply with the conditions imposed by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) with regard to merger of the Chennai and Tamil Nadu telecom circles and to amend its licence for the merged service area. Earlier, DoT had directed Aircel to clear all its outstanding dues regarding licences fees and one-time spectrum charges for frequency airwaves held for the two service areas. DoT had stated that it will approve the merger of its Chennai and rest of Tamil Nadu mobile service circles (former under the name Aircel Cellular and latter under Aircel) on a condition that the company complies with the department?s direction.
Aircel, and its subsidiary Aircel Cellular, had thereafter approached the Madras High Court, requesting for an unconditional formal approval to merge its licences for the two service areas, challenging the conditions imposed by DoT. Aircel’s objection to these conditions was that the company had already filed written petitions and as per the interim orders passed in 2012 and 2013, the high court had granted them a protection to conditions imposed for transfer of licences.
