DoT to file petition before Supreme Court in SIM renting case

"We are going to file SLP in SIM renting case. (Show cause) notice is being worked out separately," a DoT official told PTI.

A SLP allows one to take special permission to be heard in appeal against a high court/tribunal verdict. The DoT found that Vodafone, Airtel and Idea allegedly sold bulk connections to third parties, who in turn were selling those Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) to retail subscribers in 2007.

According to the department, these companies were violating subscriber verification norms and causing loss to the exchequer by not showing the revenue gains from the deal in the adjusted gross revenue (AGR).

AGR is a key metric based on which the government levies various fees on telecom operators.

In case of Vodafone, the department found Vodafone and Matrix Cellular had entered in to one an agreement, but the telecom operators before tribunal TDSAT contested "that it had no knowledge of the purported activities of Matrix so far as giving on rental the SIM cards issued to it is concerned."

International SIM card provider Matrix claims "all documentary evidence in this regard is available with Matrix."

The DoT's monitoring cell in July 2007 found that 10,145 bulk post-paid connections were working in name of Matrix Cellular Services Pvt Ltd (MCSPL).

During course of the investigation, the DoT found out that of the 10,145 bulk connections only 836 mobile numbers were reported by Matrix to it. No information about the rest 9,309 mobile connections were provided, the DoT found.

The DoT had earlier issued demand notice of Rs. 50 crores each to the three telecom operators, who contested them in the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT).

The TDSAT in its order on the matter on July 17, 2012 said: "Petitioners may be served again with a show cause notice. They on receipt thereof must file their respective show causes within two weeks from the date of receipt thereof."