In a major development, the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) today set aside liquidated damages imposed by the government on new telecom operators for delay in meeting roll-out obligations and directed the DoT to refund the money.
Setting aside the liquidated damages imposed on operators, TDSAT said while imposing such a penalty the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) should have given an opportunity to them to know their side.
It further directed DoT "to consider the issues afresh in light of observations made here, where for the petitioners [operators] may be given an opportunity of hearing".
Over the amount already collected by the government for liquidated damages (LD), the tribunal directed DoT to "refund the amount deposited by the operators pursuant to our interim orders with interest at the rate of 12% a year" within four weeks from today.
According to estimates available, the DoT has collected over Rs 300 crore from the new operators against a demand of about Rs 400 crore.
Earlier, the tribunal had directed all the operators to submit up to 60% of LD imposed on them by the DoT as an interim measure.
The tribunal also said that while imposing LD, the DoT did not include the delay in getting clearances from SACFA (Standing Advisory Committee for Frequency Allocation) and acted "illegally and without jurisdiction in refusing" so.
The TDSAT also held that Clauses 34 and 35 of the licence, through which DoT has imposed LD is "essentially been dealing with enforcement of a contract and not for recovery of any genuine direct loss suffered by the government". The licence terms "constitutes penalty and not liquidated damages.
