Delhi High Court clears New Telecom Policy

BANGALORE: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday cleared the new telecom policy. The court,

however, reiterated that each of the licensee has to submit undertakings to the court to

the effect that if the next Lok Sabha did not ratify the new policy, they would accept the

existing national telecom policy.

The interim ruling also allowed the Election Commission (EC) to interrupt and stop the

package if it so desired. The EC had earlier objected to the package, saying it violated

the electoral code but did not give any orders as the case was before the court. The case

has been adjourned till December 6. Telecom operators have been reluctant and have spent

the past few days discussing with the Attorney General as well as officials of the Prime

Minister's Office (PMO) and the ministry of communications. On Sunday, it was agreed that

the Government would represent to the court that it would collect these undertakings from

individual operators.

The bench consisting of Chief Justice S.N. Variava and Justice S.K. Mahajan said that

"in passing the interim order the court has not gone into the merit of the petition,

neither approved, vindicated, nor disapproved it."

The court said that the companies that wished to be part of the new telecom policy

would have to give an undertaking to the court that in case the next council of ministers

or the Lok Sabha disapproves of the policy, "licensees would have no rights or equity

under the said package and will revert to the existing licenses." The ruling will not

be applicable to those licensees whose licenses have been terminated. In the meantime, the

court order stated by Justice Variava said that any new licenses that were issued to

operators would stand terminated if either the council of ministers or the Lok Sabha

disapproves the policy. The bench told Attorney General Soli Sorabjee that licenses should

be issued to the operators only after they give an undertaking in this regard. Mr Sorabjee

said the Government would give the license after getting the undertaking given to the

court was incorporated in the agreement.

Following the court’s interim order, the Department of Telecom has sent letters to

all operators asking them to pick up copies of letters which stated what their outstanding

dues are under the new policy, 15 per cent of these outstandings have to be paid by August

15.

The PIL filed by the Delhi Science Forum challenged the validity of the NTP 1999, which

provided for switching over to revenue sharing system from fixed license fee regime for

existing operators. The PIL alleged that the offer made to the existing operators to

migrate to the revenue sharing system has resulted in a loss of Rs 50,000 crore to the

public exchequer in terms of license fees forgone. The telecom operators have also been

asked by the government to withdraw all cases pending in courts and in TRAI as a

pre-condition for migrating to revenue sharing scheme.