Govt asks DoT to consult Trai on new licences

The Ministry of Law has asked the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to refer the recommendations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on cancellation of new licenses back to the regulator in case of any disagreement.

Last year, Trai had said the licences of the 62 telecom companies which had not met the rollout obligations should be cancelled and fined.

In a note, the law ministry said the first provision to Section 11(1) of the Trai Act, 1997 says that the regulator’s recommendations will not be binding upon the government, but the the last provision says if the government decides that the recommendations needs modification, it needs to refer back to Trai for reconsideration.

DoT had sought views on whether it was binding upon the government to refer back Trai’s recommendations if they did not agree with certain recommendations.

The department had also questioned the legality of Trai’s advise on cancellation of the new licenses.

In response, the law ministry said the DoT needs to examine every case separately. Before cancellation of licenses, DoT needs to examine whether the licensee failed to deliver services or has failed to meet the required coverage/network rollout obligations.