A petition was filed in the Supreme Court on Saturday by an NGO to quash and set aside a January 23 order of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) not to take any coercive action against telecom companies for failure to comply with a court order to pay Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) dues.
The DoT has directed its Controllers of Communication Accounts (CCAs) of the Licence Service Areas (LSAs), the Controller-General Communication Accounts (CGCA) and the Deputy Director-General Licence Finance Assessment (DDG LFA)/the Deputy Director-General Wireless Planning Finance (DDG/WPF) not to take any coercive action against the companies, said the petition filed by Save Consumer Rights Foundation, represented by advocate Sriram P.
The petition said the directive amounted to a gross violation of the court’s October 24, 2019 judgment. It transgressed the fundamental rights of citizens by not collecting dues from the companies, thus causing a loss to the exchequer. The petition sought urgent steps to ensure immediate recovery of the dues. It also asked the court to initiate “appropriate proceedings” against the government for defying its judgment.
Next week, the court is likely to hear the petitions filed by Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel for modification of the verdict that asked the companies to pay up ₹1.47 lakh crore in dues within three months.
