TDSAT restrains Rs 250 crore penalty imposed by DoT on Idea Cellular
05 Jul 2011
The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT), the designated tribunal for all telecom sector disputes, has restrained a Rs 250 crore penalty imposed by Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on Idea Cellular for violation of licence conditions.
''The interim order has been granted on Idea's plea against DoT's demand notice issued to Idea in June 2011. Earlier, the Hon'ble TDSAT had also ruled against DoT's demand notice to Idea imposing a penalty of Rs50 crore for Punjab circle,'' Idea Cellular said in a statement issued on Tuesday.
Idea Cellular, the country's third largest mobile operator, ran into trouble following the acquisition of Spice Telecom. The Aditya Birla group company then merged Spice Telecom with itself.
On 24 February 2011, DoT slapped a penalty of Rs50 crore on Idea Cellular for not providing requisite information about its merger with Spice Telecom.
In February, Idea Cellular said in a statement that no license condition has remotely been breached.
Idea Cellular is pursuing its legitimate right, believes it is on a rock solid footing, and unfailingly observes the law of the land in letter and in spirit, the statement had said.
The Idea and Spice merger, since approved by the courts, happened to involve six overlapping licenses.
Despite being issued spectrum for five of these, Idea Cellular had advised DoT that it was not using spectrum in overlapping licenses, and had placed them in an escrow account awaiting regulatory approval, it said in the February statement.
