Centre’s Plea challenging TDSAT’s Authority to Stop DoT from enforcing 3G Ban dismissed

The Delhi High Court on 23 February 2012 dismissed a plea from the Centre challenging Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal’s (TDSAT) authority to stop the department of telecom ( DoT) from enforcing a ban on 3G roaming pacts between telcos. A division bench of acting Chief Justice A.K. Sikri and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw clarified that they were not inclined to interfere with the tribunal orders and dismissed the petition.

The DoT had pleaded that the tribunal had no jurisdiction to look into the license terms and conditions entered among the operators and the DoT. The court however had mentioned that the Telecom Dispute Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) had the jurisdiction to hear the case of mobile phone service providers that have challenged a telecom department order on banning 3G roaming services offered by operators in each others’ circles.

The HC rejected the plea from DoT, which wanted to take action against telcos that allegedly violated licence conditions by entering into 3G inter- circle roaming pacts.

A number of telecom operators, including Bharti Airtel and Vodafone, had entered into agreements with each other for offering 3G services in circles where they had not received spectrum. The service providers had entered into a roaming agreement to offer 3G services such as video calling, mobile TV and multi-media gaming in telecom circles where they could not win 3G spectrum auctioned

In December 2011, DoT had stated these pacts were illegal and had asked the operators to stop inter- circle roaming. According to the DoT, the roaming agreement among telecom companies for 3G services would lead to a significant loss of revenue to the government.