Tribunal dismisses RCom plea for GSM spectrum in 6 circles

Telecom tribunal TDSAT today dismissed Anil Ambani-led Reliance Communication’s (RCom’s) plea seeking start-up spectrum in six circles where its subsidiary company, Reliance Telecom, is providing GSM services.

The Telecom Disputes and Settlement and Appellate Tribunal’s Bench, headed by Justice Arun Kumar, dismissed RCom’s plea after observing that the company had already accepted the money refunded by the government “without demur” (any objection).

During the proceedings, commenting on RCom’s petition, the tribunal observed, “You (RCom) seem to be greedy. Your acceptance of the money returned by the government means you have lost the ground. The issue is closed. You have accepted the money”.

Dismissing the petition, TDSAT said, “The petitioner has accepted the amount returned toward six circles without demur. The ground of denial of start-up spectrum regarding six circles by the respondent (the department of telecommunications) seems justified. Therefore, we find no merit.”

Sanjay Hegde, the counsel for the DoT, submitted that in these six circles — Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Kolkata and West Bengal —Reliance Telecom Ltd was already operating GSM services under the universal access service (UAS) licence.

RCom’s counsel RS Prabhu submitted that the DoT’s policy did not mention anything about this and the company had submitted the money based on it.

Prabhu submitted that Reliance Telecom was a sister concern and a different entity. In its petition, RCom had alleged that the DoT, despite giving approval in principle for six circles on October 18, 2007, refused after a gap of over one year.

RCom further submitted that the DoT had already accepted the payment of 112.56 crore towards entry fee for the spectrum for these six circles.

Later, on December 24, 2008, the DoT had returned Rs 112.56 crore to RCom saying it was a mistake to accept the money from the operator as RCom was already in possession of GSM spectrum there and there was no question of duplicating it.