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Journalism of Courage
The Supreme Court on Wednesday held Tata Teleservices ‘Walky’ and Reliance Communication’s (formerly Infocom) ‘Unlimited Cordless’ as limited mobile phones, hence liable to pay Access Deficit Charge (ADC) to state-run BSNL for interconnection. A bench headed by Justice H S Kapadia while dismissing Tata Teleservices and Reliance Communication’s petitions has upheld telecom tribunal TDSAT’s order of September 2005 that held these services are not fixed lines telephones, but limited mobile. “…keeping in mind the technology, the policy framework and the thrust of the entire correspondence between Trai, DOT and Reliance herein, it is clear that the concept of fixed wireless access (FWA) was well-known in the market and in the business right from 2003 … …in that light we hold that the impugned circular dated March 4, 2005 of Trai was clarificatory in nature and therefore, the demands made by BSNL for the period between November 14 2004 to August 26, 2005 is valid in law and justified in terms of Unified Access Service Licence.” The court while rejecting Tata’s and Reliance’s pleas said computation of ADC falls within policy framework which was a part of IUC Regulations.
While stating that ADC was chargeable retrospectively, Justice Kapadia, writing the verdict for the bench, said that the court was not required to decide quantification of the ADC amount as the claim and the counterclaim was not the subject matter of the appeals. “Those questions are left open to be decided in accordance with law at the appropriate stage by the competent authority under the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Act, 1997,” the judges observed.
