The Telecom Dispute Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT), on Thursday said that priority for issuing licences and subsequent spectrum should be considered according to application, and not the date of payment of fee for the radio frequency.
Idea Cellular had alleged that the department of telecommunications (DoT) subverted its own well-settled policy of granting spectrum, on seniority determined by the date of application and no cap on the number of players. The government however, said that TDSAT has no jurisdiction to hear Idea and Spice?s pleas as they have not yet been awarded licences for some of the circles and the ongoing fight cannot be considered as one between the licensor (government) and the licensee.
Appearing for DoT, additional solicitor general, Vikas Singh submitted before the TDSAT that it has no jurisdiction to hear the application on merit. As per Section 14 of the Trai Act, 1997, which provides establishment of an appellate tribunal (TDSAT), it could adjudicate disputes between licensor and licensee only. But, the Tribunal passed an interim order while consenting with the Delhi High Court, that the seniority of the application of Idea and Spice should be maintained.
On February 13, 2008, passing an interim order on the plea of real estate firm Parsvnath Developers, the Delhi High Court had directed that DoT should take into account the seniority of the petitioner. TDSAT chairman Arun Kumar also directed DoT to consider the seniority of Spice Telecom from August 31, 2006 when it had applied for unified access service (UAS) licence and Idea?s from June 26, 2006.
On the question of jurisdiction and maintainability raised by the government, Kumar said that it would be decided later, at the stage of hearing. In its petition, Idea and another GSM operator Spice, had asked the Tribunal to stay the allocation of start-up spectrum to 120 letter of intent (LoI) holders, who were to get the radio waves based on first-come-first-served procedure. The GSM operator also contended that DoT, despite the issue of determining seniority being sub-judice before the Delhi High Court, proceeded to finalise the signing of licence agreements.
Idea had alleged that the DoT was illegally twisting the facts on ?no cap on UAS licence?. It had alleged that Videocon-promoted Datacom solutions were preferred over Idea Cellular by manipulating the facts.