SC directs telcos to give details of dues to BSNL

The Supreme Court today directed private telecom operators to separately file details of carriage charges due to BSNL within two weeks. This, at a time, when the government wanted at least 50 per cent of its claim to be paid immediately.

The Bench headed by Chief Justice S H Kapadia asked the operators not to submit the information under the Cellular Operators’ Association of India or the Association of Unified Telecom Services Providers of India. The service providers are Tata, Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications. There were also about ten smaller companies.

While Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium said the operators owed around Rs 260 crore for 2005-2009, the companies quoted a lower amount — the Tatas Rs 45 crore, RComm Rs 46 crore and Bharti Airtel Rs 79 crore.

Subramanium told the court that the private operators should pay at least 50 per cent of the dues immediately to show their bona fide before taking up their appeals. The case will come up for hearing again after two weeks.

The private companies, who had appealed against an order by the TDSAT, told the court that they did not have call record details of the relevant years and therefore it would be difficult for them to provide the same.

However, the court insisted that they should submit a detailed chart separately for each company.