HC to hear Loop Telecom promoters' plea on UASL guidelines

The Delhi High Court today decided to hear on July 17 a plea of Loop Telecom's promoters against the decision of a ministers' group to refund the licence fees only to those telecom companies against which criminal prosecution was not initiated in 2G spectrum alllocation case.
A division bench of Chief Justice D Murugesan and Jayant Nath allowed the application of Loop Telecom seeking this court to hear their plea on the ground that the bench in TDSAT is yet to be reconstituted.
On February 21, while hearing their appeal against the single judge order rejecting their petition on February 5, the bench had disposed of their plea and asked them to approach the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) for adjudication on merit the issue of Empowered Group of Minister's decision and clause 8 of UASL 2005 guidelines.

"The petitioners are being left remediless and grave prejudice is being caused to them as the government is continuing to stand by its decision of setting off the licence fees paid in 2008 to such companies who once again bid for the spectrum in the future actions," the application for revival of the plea said.
Alleging that the guidelines of Unified Access Services Licence (UASL) were vague and ambiguous, I P Khaitan and Kiran Khaitan moved Delhi High Court.
"The vague and ambiguous provision of Clause 8 of UASL guidelines have caused grave prejudice and violated the fundamental rights of the petitioners," said Khaitans in the petition.

"Lack of clarity over clause 8 of the UASL Guidelines 2005 has resulted in harm to the business interests of the appellants (Khaitans). Thus, it is imperative that the said issue raised in the plea are to be adjudicated at the earliest," their plea said.