SC asks Reliance Info to pay Rs 85 cr

The Supreme Court today directed Reliance Infocomm to pay the entire sum of Rs 182.7 crore demanded by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) for allegedly evading payment by re-routing international calls as local ones.

The payment must be made within four weeks. Thereafter, the Delhi High Court will hear the case pending there and give a decision before January 31.

The order was passed by a Bench comprising Justice Santosh Hegde and Justice SB Sinha while hearing the appeal of BSNL against the interim order of the high court.

As Reliance has already paid Rs 98 crore, following the high court order, it will now have to pay the balance Rs 84.7 crore.

BSNL had challenged the jurisdiction of the high court on the issue, as the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal was the proper forum to deal with such technical matters. Even arbitration, as proposed by Reliance, was not acceptable to BSNL, which raised its claim to Rs 300 crore.

BSNL said Rs 182.7 crore was claimed at a time when the dispute arose in the high court. However, there was "defrauding in every centre" and the revenue loss in different circles was being totalled. The current figure would be around Rs 300 crore, BSNL's counsel Soli Sorabjee said.

BSNL described the technical details of Reliance's operations and alleged that international calls were being routed through 10,000 fictitious numbers.

They were also tampering with the caller identification facility, BSNL alleged. The state-owned telecom service provider said despite an undertaking before the court, Reliance had not stopped the practice.

Reliance's counsel Harish Salve said the company had not done anything new as BSNL and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd were providing the same service while routing international calls. He also said the company had discontinued the service in the wake of the controversy.

Salve said the BSNL website acknowledged that it was providing such international call facilities. He alleged that BSNL was raising its demands daily, even though they had acknowledged that their computation regarding Ahmedabad was wrong.