In a major setback to Bharti Group which offers telecom services under AirTel brand, the Supreme Court has turned down its plea seeking refund of Rs 135 crore (Rs 1.35 billion) for surrendering five basic licences.
The court recently dismissed an appeal filed by Bharti challenging a TDSAT order, which upheld Department of Telecom's view that the migration of basic and cellular service providers to Unified Access Service provider was voluntary after the Cabinet's decision of October 2003.
When contacted a Bharti spokesperson told PTI "we are examining the way forward."
Asked whether the company would appeal to DoT to review the case, the spokesperson declined to comment.
Bharti's plea was first rejected by DoT saying the entry fee was non-refundable. Government had approved the policy of Unified Access Service licence as per decision of the Cabinet in October, 2003. The detailed guidelines envisaged "voluntary" migration of the existing basic and cellular service providers to UAS regime, one of DoT's communication had said.
"The Government has already taken a decision that since the entry fee was non-refundable there is no case for any refund of entry fee as well as any compensation for change of policy which is a prerogative of the government," according to DoT.