The Supreme Court on Friday directed Reliance Infocomm to pay up a balance Rs 84.7 crore (Rs 847 million) to BSNL for the demand of Rs 182.7 crore (Rs 1.827 billion) made by it for using the 'Home Country Direct' services thereby routing the international calls as local ones.
Referring the matter back to the high court to decide on the appeal filed by Reliance Infocomm by January 31, the court said no interim order for payment of Rs 40 crore (Rs 400 million) by Reliance to BSNL could have been made.
The court set aside the interim order of the high court and directed Reliance to pay up the balance of the demand within four weeks.
In October, BSNL had raised a demand of Rs 182.7 crore of which Reliance has paid Rs 58 crore (Rs 580 million) in the first installment and then Rs 40 crore on the direction of the high court.
The court said Reliance will comply with its undertaking before the high court to correct the caller line identification (CLI) problem pointed out by BSNL.
Reliance agreed to do it immediately.
The court said the high court will also consider BSNL's contention that neither the court nor any arbitrator has the jurisdiction to decide the dispute between BSNL and Reliance and that TDSAT (Telecom Dispute Settlement Appellate Tribunal) was the sole authority to entertain such disputes.
BSNL had alleged that Reliance Infocomm indulged in routing of incoming international calls as local ones and thus denied a payment of Access Deicit Charge (ADC), a levy paid by private operators to BSNL for rural telephony, totaling over Rs 250 crore (Rs 2.50 billion) till date.
MTNL had also slapped a demand of Rs 309 crore (Rs 3.09 billion) on Reliance Infocomm for the similar reason.
The Department of Telecom had issued a show cause notice to Reliance on November 24 proposing a penalty of Rs 150 crore (Rs 1.50 billion) for violating the licence conditions. This has been contested by the private operator (Reliance) saying no violation has been listed out in the notice and thus termed the proposed penalty as 'unjustified and untenable.'
"There has been no violation of any of the licence condition," Reliance had said in its 9-page reply to DoT.
Reliance Infocomm said: "The show cause notice issued to us is altogether lacking in material particular. DoT has failed to provide a properly reasoned order."
Terming its response as 'preliminary', the company had said it would file a detailed reply if the government provided particulars of violation of licence conditions even as company officials ruled out exploring legal options at this stage.
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