DoT questions tribunal's jurisdiction to hear telcos' plea on 3G

New Delhi: The telecom ministry today questioned the jurisdiction of telecom tribunal TDSAT on entertaining the petitions of five telecom operators, including Bharti Airtel and Vodafone, challenging the government’s directive to stop 3G roaming agreements.

Additional Solicitor General AS Chandiok appearing for the Department of Telecom (DoT) told the tribunal that it has no jurisdiction to entertain the petitions which are altering the terms of telecom licence.

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Terming the inter-cirle roaming pacts among telecom service providers for 3G services in areas where they do not have the designated spectrum as “illegal”, the government had issued notices to five players to stop such services immediately.

The operators - Bharti, Vodafone, Idea, Tatas and Aircel - had challenged the government’s decision in TDSAT. The Additional Solicitor General said that in its recent judgement the Supreme Court has said that the tribunal cannot entertain the petition which are altering the licence conditions.

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On this the tribunal asked the government to file a separate application in this regard. The Additional Solicitor General said, “It would be filed today only.”

Further, the tribunal asked the operators to file replies of the new coming application questioning its jurisdiction by Friday this week and directed to list the matter on Monday (January 9) for next hearing.

Meanwhile, state-owned BSNL today requested to implead into this ongoing dispute and make it a party in the suite. Additional Solicitor General AS Tankha appearing for BSNL submitted that that PSU is going to be affected by the outcome of its hearing and it should be heard. He also submitted that an application in this regard would be filed today only.

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On this, TDSAT Chairman Justice S B Sinha said it should be decided only after deciding on the preliminary objections raised by DoT.

During the proceedings Chandiok submitted that operators have still not complied with the interim order of TDSAT December 24, directing them to handover the copies of their 3G roaming agreements.

The operators said that they were asked to handover their agreements only to the tribunal and not to DoT. Operators said that they have already submitted their agreements in a seal cover before the tribunal. However, the tribunal said that such agreements submitted by the operators can be inspected by DoT through its counsel.

On Monday, in a strong rebuttal to telecom operators on the issue of 3G roaming, the government had alleged that service providers have not come with clean hands and that they have suppressed material documents before telecom tribunal TDSAT.

Filing an affidavit before the TDSAT, the Department of Telecom (DoT) had requested the tribunal to dismiss the petition of telecom operators challenging the government directive to stop 3G roaming immediately. DoT had on December 23, 2011, issued notices to telecom companies saying their 3G roaming pacts were illegal and should be stopped immediately within 24 hours.

Operators - Bharti, Vodafone, Idea, Aircel and Tatas - challenged DoT’s decision before the Telecom Dispute Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) on the same day.

PTI