Judgement reserved on Reliance Telecom's plea against NE penalty

The Delhi High Court Thursday reserved its judgement on a plea of Reliance Telecom Ltd (RTL) against orders of telecom tribunal TDSAT which upheld the penalty imposed on it by DoT for alleged incomplete and faulty customer details of post-paid customers in Assam and northeast circles.

"The judgement is reserved," Justice Rajiv Shakdher said after hearing brief arguments advanced by senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for RTL.

The private telecom major, in its petition, has sought a direction to restrain the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) from enforcing the demands of penalty raised by it on grounds of incomplete and faulty customer details of post-paid customers in Assam and northeast circles.

On July 5, the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) had dismissed the plea of several telecom operators including RTL for a review of a March 13 interim order asking them to pay the full penalty, except for certain categories, imposed by the DoT.

RTL also alleged that a DoT circular, issued on July 20, 2010, wrongly extended the subscriber verification guidelines, meant for Jammu and Kashmir, to Assam and northeast telecom circles.

Seeking quashing of orders passed by the TDSAT, the petition alleged the penalties "levied on petitioner (RTL) were even otherwise erroneous as they had been raised on an incorrect application of the slab system prescribed by the Respondent (DoT) vide its circular dated August 24, 2008".

TDSAT had earlier held that for connections activated between July 20, 2010, and March 31, 2011 on the basis of photo identity issued by village panchayats and caste and domicile certificate by the state governments, operators would have to pay only 25 per cent of the penalty.

The telecom operators, including RTL, had submitted before the TDSAT that 25 percent formula should be applicable on all the connections issued including on the basis of documents such as voter ID card and driving licence.

Telecom operators along with their association COAI had opposed DoT's penalty imposed on them for not completing the directive to re-verify existing prepaid connections in Assam and other northeastern states.

In a circular last year, DoT had said certificates by village panchayat head or its equivalent authority as well as caste and domicile certificates with photographs provided by state governments were not treated as ID proof.

Moreover, voters identity cards issued before 2008 were also kept outside the list.

This was challenged by the operators who had contended DoT has simply extended the guidelines of J&K Service Area to Assam and Northeast Service Areas.