The Ministry of Law declines to give an opinion on DoT’s one-time licence fee proposal
The Ministry of Law has declined to give its opinion on the issue of charging operators with a one-time licence fee before the verdict of the Presidential Reference taken on this subject is out, say news reports.
Prior to this, the Ministry of Finance and the Planning Commission had expressed their concern over this proposal on grounds that the one time licence fee would violate the licence agreement between the government and the operators
Thereafter, DoT had approached the Ministry of Law for its views on the issue.
Now, Salman Khurshid, Minister of Law and Justice has reportedly said that the Ministry of Law is not authorised to comment on this subject, since the views of the Attorney General of India are awaited on the same.
Also, the Ministry feels that it is inappropriate to provide its views on the same as the issue is pending before the Supreme Court. So, there is a possibility that its opinion may be overruled by the Court.
