Attorney General Ghoolam Vahanvati has written to the department of telecommunications (DoT), saying it should wait for the Supreme Court?s verdict on the presidential reference before canceling Tata Teleservices (TTSL) and Tata Teleservices Maharashtra (TTML) telecom licences.
The letter came in response to DoT’s query on whether the GSM telecom licences granted to the Tata Group companies also stood canceled in the wake of the apex court judgment of February 2 that canceled all telecom licences granted on and after January 10, 2008.
The apex court’s judgment on the presidential reference will be delivered on September 28.
Confirming that DoT had received AG’s reply, DoT secretary R Chandrasekhar said, ?Yes, we have received it and now we will decide on the next course of action?.
The issue first came to notice when the GSM operators industry body, the Cellular operators Association of India (COAI), contested that not 122 but 141 telecom licences should be canceled as part of the Supreme Court judgment of February 2.
It then filed a petition with the telecom tribunal, the Telecom Disputes Settlement Appellate tribunal, proposing that apart from the 122 telecom licences another 19 telecom licences belonging to the Tata Group were also affected by the judgment.
Though its petition was dismissed, DoT wrote to the AG asking for a legal opinion on the matter. TTSL and TTML had received 19 licences to operate the GSM technology in 2008.