PIL filed against Govt’s telecom package

Apart from this, cellular operators in the four metros would have paid Rs 8,300 crore during the remaining period of the licence period, on the assumption that the network will grow by 25 per cent and pulse rate by 20 per cent per year. The petition has also alleged that on grounds of financial difficulty due to high licence fees from the fourth year of operation, the metro operators had represented to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and got their rentals increased from Rs 156 per month to Rs 600 per month.

Moreover, the pretext of financial viability, especially in the case of metro operators were “patently false” as some operators had sold their equity and had made huge profits in off-shore deals, the petition said.

According to the petition, “the National Telecom Policy 1999 is bad in law as much as it is contrary to the professed public interest” and that “it would confer huge benefits and largesse to private operators at the cost of the national exchequer.”

The Delhi Science Forum, formerly headed by P N Haksar, is an organisation consisting of members from scientific and technical institutes, public sector organisations and people interested in the policy regarding various sectors like power, patents and telecom among others.

The Forum had earlier filed a petition against the National Telecom Policy of 1994 on the grounds that this would be against public interest and would create regional imbalances in the telecom networks across the country. The petition at that time had stated that the policy would not be able to provide telecom services at affordable prices in an equitable manner across the country. It had also said that if the licence fee regime had to benefit the telecom sector, it should be reinvested in the sector in order to set up world class telecom networks in India.

The courts however, did not go into the merits of the case at that time as it fell within the purview of the government’s powers to frame policy without any interference from courts. This time however, the Forum has raised questions about implementation of a policy and how it would affect the national exchequer and not the policy itself.