Aditya Birla Group firm Idea Cellular today said it is in the process of filing an application in the Delhi High Court against the ex-parte stay obtained by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on its takeover of Spice Communications.
The stay was obtained by the DoT from the High Court last week, Idea said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.
The merger with Spice in six circles was announced in June 2008 and the copy of the same was provided to the DoT, Idea said.
Recently, the DoT had issued a cancellation order to Idea for the overlapping of licences in the same circle after the merger between Idea and Spice.
Idea has maintained that it has not breached any condition of the licence agreement. It said it had written 20 letters to the DoT over the past 30 months but had failed to get any response from the government.
Idea is facing charges of violation of terms and conditions of licence by retaining overlapping licences even as the company claimed that it never wanted to retain the unused spectrum and had offered to surrender the overlapped licences.
The company claimed that in a meeting in August 2008, the DoT advised the company that it should obtain necessary court approvals, and then approach the DoT for merger of licences.
The company, in its filing, said both the Gujarat High Court and the Delhi High Court had approved the scheme of amalgamation of Spice Communications with Idea Cellular "Vide their respective orders dated November 26, 2009 and February 5, 2010".
