Now Reading: Supreme Court declines stay on Rs 3,300 crore spectrum charge ruling
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Supreme Court declines stay on Rs 3,300 crore spectrum charge ruling
The Supreme Court on Friday refused to stay a Bombay High Court order that quashed the Centre’s demand for a one-time spectrum charge from telecom companies, including Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea.…
The Story in Brief
The Supreme Court on Friday refused to stay a Bombay High Court order that quashed the Centre’s demand for a one-time spectrum charge from telecom companies, including Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea. The dispute involves about Rs 3,300 crore, the government told the court.
The court issued notice to the telecom companies on the Centre’s appeal. The charge covered spectrum held beyond 6.2 MHz between July 2008 and December 2012, calculated using prices from the 2012 spectrum auction. The Bombay High Court had ruled that the retrospective levy lacked contractual and statutory basis. The Centre is seeking to revive the Department of Telecommunications’ demand notices.
The Indian Opinion
Claims that the court has ended the dispute are premature, while telecom operators cannot treat the High Court victory as final. The immediate order preserves the existing position but does not decide whether the Centre could impose a retrospective levy without a clear contractual or statutory foundation. The eventual judgment will matter not just to Airtel and Vodafone Idea, but to how policy costs are imposed on businesses. The key test is whether the Supreme Court accepts the legal basis for the Rs 3,300 crore demand.
Source: telecom.economictimes.indiatimes.com
This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
