TDSAT cases in the Supreme Court: No telling which way the tide will turn

Experts feel that a favourable ruling by the SC for telecom firms in the matter of one-time spectrum usage charge with prospective effect would help them reduce their liabilities

As the Department of Telecommunications urges the Supreme Court to consider its plea permitting the levy of a one-time spectrum usage charge with prospective effect, there are many cases with the Telecom Disputes Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) that demand attention.

In this case the DoT has asked the SC to reconsider its appeal against the tribunal's ruling and supporting the telecom companies' argument that one-time spectrum usage charge should be levied prospectively.

As per the telecom department's rules, these levies require a telecom company with over 6.2 MHz of spectrum per circle between July 2008 and December 2012 to pay a one-time market linked price for the additional airwaves held in the circle.

As far as spectrum holding over 4.4 Mhz is concerned, between January 2013 till the expiry of licences, the service providers are mandated to pay the market price.

Experts feel that a favourable ruling for telecom companies by the SC would help them reduce their liabilities.

In the past, the SC admitted appeals by either the telecom department or service providers, including submission of Reliance Communications' petition in 2011, challenging the TDSAT order of setting aside the plea of RCom challenging penalty imposed by the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL).

BSNL had slapped RCom with two bills of Rs 1.5 crore and Rs 4.26 crore, stating that the firm was tampering with Caller Line Identification and showing international calls as local ones.

This was challenged by RCom before the TDSAT, which on 21 January, 2011 rejected it by saying that plea was barred by limitation and there was no need to look into the merits of the case.

In January 2021, the SC admitted an appeal by the Union government challenging the tribunal's decision to stop levying eight per cent of adjusted gross revenue as license fee from internet service providers under the unified license regime.

In a role reversal, in September TDSAT stayed the telecom department's demand of Rs 1,376 crore from Bharti Airtel in unpaid past dues that defunct telecom firm Videocon Telecommunications owed.

The dues were of Videocon Telecommunications, whose spectrum was acquired by the Sunil Mittal-led carrier in 2016. And so the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), post-Supreme Court verdict on the adjusted gross revenue (AGR) last year, asked Airtel to pay the dues that arose on that spectrum.

TDSAT heard the company's challenge and stayed the demand.