Bharti's refund hearing plea on Mar 4

Telecom Dispute Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) will consider the petition of Bharti challenging the government's decision rejecting its plea for refund of Rs 135 crore licence fee on March 4.

"TDSAT has sought some clarifications from Bharti on the licence terms, and has posted the matter to be taken up for consideration on March 4,"
Ramji Srinivasan, counsel for Bharti, said.

Bharti had surrendered five basic service licences  - Delhi, Haryana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh - following the government decision to issue unified access service licence (UASL) where an operator could offer all services after paying the due entry fee. Before migrating to UASL, the company had paid for these circles in the earlier regime.

The company had claimed refund of Rs 135 crore from the department of telecom (DoT), but DoT has rejected its claim.