The Supreme Court today asked Reliance Infocomm to pay Rs 84.7 crore within a week towards the balance due to BSNL as access deficit charge (ADC) while rejecting its request to furnish a bank guarantee.Of the Rs 182.7 crore that BSNL has demanded from Reliance Infocomm for routing international calls as local ones resulting in evasion of payment of ADC, the latter had paid Rs 98 crore and had sought permission to pay the balance through a bank guarantee.The court today directed Reliance to pay up the rest of the money within a week - indicating that if Reliance does not pay up, BSNL would be free to disconnect the services to Reliance.The Delhi High Court will now hear the matter on January 13.The SC had, on December 3, asked Reliance Infocomm to pay up within four weeks the entire demand of Rs 182.7 crore made by BSNL, which had claimed that Reliance had evaded revenue by re-routing international calls as local ones.Reliance Infocomm has to pay Rs 84.7 crore as it had deposited Rs 58 crore and another Rs 40 crore on the basis of the interim direction of the Delhi High Court.The SC, at its last hearing on December 3, had referred the case back to the division bench of the high court, which would hear the parties.The apex court had fixed January 31, 2005, as the outer limit for the High Court to give its verdict on the petition filed by Reliance challenging the demand of Rs 182.7 crore made by BSNL.
