The Delhi High Court on Wednesday deferred the dismissal of a petition filed by Bharti Airtel in the 3G intra-circle roaming (ICR) matter and listed the matter for hearing on September 13, as an earlier petition filed by the company will be heard by the Supreme Court on September 11.
The High Court, on the other hand, dismissed Vodafone’s petition pending before it and granted it liberty to pursue the matter further with the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT). On August 5, Idea Cellular had also withdrawn its petition and will now seek further remedy in the TDSAT.
Justice Manmohan, however, in his order observed that the “captains of the telecom industry are virtually behaving like school boys”, who are “delaying the passing of an obvious order”, that is, the dismissal of Airtel’s writ petition with a liberty to file a fresh case before the TDSAT.
The judge deferred dismissal of Airtel’s petition after considering the argument presented by Senior Counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi that if the company is directed to approach the TDSAT, then an appeal challenging an earlier High Court Division Bench order before the Supreme Court will become infructuous.
Airtel’s petition was premised on the basis that on the date of the filing, TDSAT was not functioning, leaving the company with no “alternative effective remedy”. However, Justice Manmohan went on to record his objection, saying that the TDSAT is “admittedly functional” these days and that “it is not understood as to how TDSAT will proceed with the hearing in the cases of Vodafone and Idea, when Airtel’s case is still pending before this court”.
Earlier, Reliance Communications and BSNL had filed impleadment application in the matter before the Delhi High Court and the former had sought the transfer of the proceedings to TDSAT.
On April 11, the Supreme Court had passed an order restricting the three telecom companies from enrolling any new customers in circles where they did not have the licences to offer 3G services. However, the apex court had allowed the companies to offer 3G services to existing customers through ICR pacts.
The entire issue began after the DoT has issued different notices to the companies, directing them to stop offering 3G services in circles where they had not won any spectrum in the 2010 auctions. DoT had said that the ICR pacts between the telecom operators, under which the telcos were offering 3G through bilateral pacts, was in actuality “illegal subletting”.