Miffed by what it feels is tardy performance of legal counsels, the department of telecommunications (DoT) will soon expand its legal team to improve its score card when it comes to winning cases in the courts.
Citing a recent case that the department lost at Telecom Disputes and Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) wherein it had challenged the tribunal?s jurisdiction over deciding the 3G roaming pacts among the operators, an internal note of the DoT says, ?If our government counsels deal with the matter in this way every time, winning strong government cases may become difficult.?
In this matter, the court had ruled out DoT’s contention and firmly established that it did possess the jurisdiction to decide the legality of the 3G intra-circle roaming pacts among operators that DoT had rendered illegal.
The note highlights how the current legal team comprising, ASG Chandiok and advocate Manisha Dhir, were repeatedly late or missing from the hearings of the matter at TDSAT.
As a result, the court gave a pass over the first two times but refused the third time, instead asking Manisha Dhir?s assistant to argue on behalf of the department. Nearly 15 minutes after the argument began, Dhir reached the court and took over the matter from her assistant only to disappear after the lunch break. As a result, when the other side concluded its arguments and tossed questions back at DoT, the department was once again left to be defended by Dhir’s assistant.
According to the note, DoT secretary R Chandrashekhar has proposed the idea of additionally using the services of other additional solicitor generals or ASGs. ?Important cases with major implications require undivided attention. In view of the large number of legal cases the DoT is facing perhaps we need to expand our legal team, by using some other ASGs in some of the cases,? he said in a note to telecom minister Kapil Sibal.
Apart from the 3G intra-circle roaming pacts case, where the DoT is facing Vodafone Airtel and Idea at the TDSAT, the other important cases up for hearing at the courts include the DoT’s appeal in the Supreme Court against TDSAT’s order holding it wrong on levying penalty on new 2G operators for not meeting the roll out obligations.