RTL's plea for licence extension: SC seeks Centre's reply

Supreme Court today asked the government to respond to the plea of Reliance Telecom seeking extension of its licences in seven circles by 10 years.
A bench headed by Justice J Chelameswar issued notice to the Department of Telecommmunications (DoT) on the plea of Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group firm RTL seeking extension of its licence by another 10 years for seven circles in Assam, North East, West Bengal, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Himachal Pradesh.
The DoT had rejected the firm's application for extension on February 2.
The apex court today sought Centre's stand and posted the case for April 20.

The Supreme Court had ealier reserved its verdict on a bunch of petitions filed by Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular, Vodafone Mobile Services and Loop Mobile India who had also sought extension of their 20-year spectrum licences by another 10 years.
The telecom operators had challenged the government's decision to reject their applications for extension of their licences and auction the spectrum surrendered by them.

While telecom companies have argued that the terms and conditions of their 20-year licences state that they were extendable by another 10 years, the government has argued that the norms say it "may" extend the licence, and hence the matter was at its discretion.

The operators had earlier sought a stay on auction, saying their spectrum, for which the 20-year licence has expired, should not be put on the block.
On Mar 23, the apex court had rejected the plea to stay the spectrum auction but agreed to hear the case expeditiously and ordered that the companies would participate in the auction without prejudice to the rights they claim on licence extension.