TDSAT to resolve Idea-Spice licence issue

Referring the licences issue to TDSAT,the Bench underlined that sanctioning of merger scheme amounted only merging the companies and not licences and hence,Idea will require a prior permission of DoT for transfer of these licences.

We thus modify the impugned orders of the learned Company Judge omitting the direction which states that overlapping licenses of Spice shall forthwith stand transferred with the licensor,i.e.,DoT. Instead,we substitute this by the direction that insofar as dispute about transfer of licenses of Spice to Idea is concerned,the same shall be decided and determined by TDSAT and the parties, ordered the bench.

Idea acquired 41 per cent stake in Spice in June 2008. Both the companies had overlapping licences in Punjab,Karnataka,Andhra Pradesh,Delhi,Haryana and Maharashtra. The single-judge had directed the firms to surrender the overlapping licences of Punjab and Karnataka circles to the DoT.