DoT has no say in merger: Idea to HC

Aditya Birla group firm Idea Cellular today submitted before the Delhi High Court that the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has no say in the merger of companies.

Challenging a single-judge Bench order, which said that six licences of Spice Communications would not be transferred to Idea Cellular, the company told Justices Vikramjit Sen and Siddharth Mridul that DoT lacked the power to decide on mergers and put conditions on them.

"Merger of company is different from merger of licences and DoT has only authority to regulate latter (licences)," said Senior advocate AM Singhvi, appearing for Idea Cellular.

Citing telecom regulations, he said, "Prior approval of DoT is required for merger of licences and not for merger of companies."

Besides, he said DoT plea ought to have been rejected on the sole basis of delay of three years after the AB Group firm acquired the Spice Communications in 2008.

Alleging suppression of facts by DoT, Singhvi said that after one year of the merger, it took stay from company court without giving notice.

On July 4, the Delhi High Court had said the six licences of Spice would not be transferred to Idea as the company did not comply with the licence and merger guidelines.

The court had also slapped a fine of Rs 1 crore on Idea for not giving the correct information to the court. It had said Idea had not put the rejection letters by DoT on merger of licences and failed to place on record relevant documents.