Telecom Petition No. 91 of 2015 (MA No. 25 of 2016), Telecom Petition No. 80 of 2015 (M.A. Nos. 50, 51, 327 of 2015 and 24 of 2016), Telecom Petition No. 79 of 2015 (M.A. Nos. 48, 49, 62-63, 262 and 263 of 2015) and Telecom Petition No. 105 of 2015. Case: Idea Cellular Ltd. and Ors. Vs Union of India and Ors.. TDSAT (Telecom Disputes Settlement & Appellate Tribunal)
| Case Number | Telecom Petition No. 91 of 2015 (MA No. 25 of 2016), Telecom Petition No. 80 of 2015 (M.A. Nos. 50, 51, 327 of 2015 and 24 of 2016), Telecom Petition No. 79 of 2015 (M.A. Nos. 48, 49, 62-63, 262 and 263 of 2015) and Telecom Petition No. 105 of 2015 |
| Counsel | For Appellant: Gopal Jain, Sr. Advocate, Manjul Bajpai, Shashwat Bajpai and Madhur Bharatiya, Advocates |
| Judges | Aftab Alam, J. (Chairperson) and B.B. Srivastava, Member |
| Issue | Indian Telegraph Act, 1885 - Section 4 |
| Judgement Date | June 14, 2016 |
| Court | TDSAT (Telecom Disputes Settlement & Appellate Tribunal) |
Order:
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Parties were heard on a number of dates on the petitioners' plea that relief(s) as prayed for on their behalf may be granted, even as an interim arrangement, on the basis the materials already on record without putting up the case for a full dress trial asking the parties to adduce evidences in support of their respective cases.
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The four petitioners, namely, Idea, Vodafone, Dishnet and Bharti are some of the major mobile telephone service providers in the country.
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The case of Idea relates to the service areas of Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Jammu & Kashmir where it is operating under CMTS/UAS licences granted under section 4 of the Indian Telegraph Act 1885.
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The case of Bharti relates to the Jammu & Kashmir service area where it operates under a licence granted under section 4 of the Indian Telegraph Act.
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The case of Dishnet relates to the service areas of Jammu & Kashmir and Punjab where it is operating under UAS licences granted under section 4 of the Indian Telegraph Act.
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The case of Vodafone relates to the service areas of Haryana and Gujarat where it is operating under UAS licences granted under section 4 of the Indian Telegraph Act.
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It is the case of the petitioners that they obtained spectrums in 2100 MHz band in the respective service areas as indicated above on being successful bidders in the auction for allocation of spectrums held by the DoT on the basis of the Notice Inviting Application (NIA) dated 25.02.2010. The brief details regarding the spectrums allocated to the petitioners and the prices paid by the petitioners for their allocation are given below in a tabular form:
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It is the common grievance of all the four petitioners that the spectrums allocated in their favour in the respective service areas suffer from severe interferences causing great disruption in mobile phone services provided by them to their subscribers. It is stated that the interference in the spectrums allocated to them is so intense that at times it becomes impossible to provide any mobile service, leave alone maintaining the quality of service as stipulated in their licence conditions and mandated by the Regulator. It is submitted on behalf of the petitioners that they paid large sums of good money as market determined price for allocation of the spectrums and it is axiomatic that in consideration they ought to be given clean, interference free and commercially exploitable spectrums. The action of the DoT in allocating them spectrums that, fully within its knowledge, constantly suffers from interference is wholly unreasonable and in violation of the petitioners' legal and contractual rights. It is further submitted on behalf of the petitioners that their licences are for a period of 20 years and they have already spent five years pursuing redressal of their grievance from the DoT but as no relief was forthcoming, they were constrained to approach the Tribunal seeking urgent remedial measures.
Idea, Vodafone and Dishnet, in their respective petitions mainly seek a direction to the Respondent to substitute/replace the spectrums in 2100 MHz allocated to them in their respective service areas by commercially usable spectrum. Bharti in its petition, however, prays for a more comprehensive set of reliefs which are as under:
(a) Direct the Respondent to immediately rectify the interference in the 3G spectrum allocated to the Petitioner in the 2100 MHz spectrum band in the J & K Service Area making it commercially usable to provide 3G services in the J & K Service Area;
(b) Or in the alternative and without prejudice to the prayer (a) hereinabove, direct the Respondent to immediately allot to the Petitioner alternative clean, interference - free, and commercially usable 3G spectrum in the 2100 MHz spectrum band in the J & K Service Area in the frequency of 1940 - 1959 MHz or in any other frequency having clean, interference - free, and commercially usable 3G spectrum;
(c) Direct the Respondent to extend the 20 year period of allotment of 3G spectrum in the 2100 MHz spectrum band in the J & K Service Area to commence from the date when the Respondent makes clean, interference - free, and commercially usable 3G spectrum available to the Petitioner instead of commencing from 01.09.2010;
(d) Grant damages, loss, and compensation to the Petitioner on account of loss of business, unutilized infrastructure, loss of goodwill, operational costs, maintenance costs, personnel costs, and the like, caused due to the Respondent allocating 3G spectrum in the 2100 MHz spectrum band in the J & K Service Area to the Petitioner, which is rife with interference;
(e) Grant ex-parte, ad-interim orders in respect of prayer (b) hereinabove; and
(f) Pass any such other and further(s) as this Hon'ble Tribunal may deem fit in the facts and circumstances of the present case.
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When the petitions first came up before the Tribunal (in March 2015), it found undeniable materials on record showing that there was interference in the uplink and downlink frequencies...
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