SC dismisses Bharti's plea for Rs 135cr refund

In a major setback to the Bharti group, the Supreme Court has turned down its plea seeking refund of Rs 135 crore for surrendering five basic licences.

The court dismissed an appeal filed by Bharti challenging a TDSAT order, which upheld the view of the department of telecom (DoT) that the migration of basic and cellular service providers to unified access service (UAS) provider was voluntary after the cabinet's decision of October 2003.

When contacted, a Bharti spokesperson said: "We are examining the way forward." Asked whether the company would appeal to DoT to review the case, the spokesperson declined to comment.

Bharti's plea was first rejected by DoT saying the entry fee was non-refundable. The government had approved the policy of UAS licence as per the decision of the cabinet in October 2003. The detailed guidelines envisaged "voluntary" migration of the existing basic and cellular service providers to the UAS regime.

"The government had already taken a decision that since the entry fee was non-refundable, there is no case for any refund of entry fee as well as any compensation for change of policy, which is a prerogative of the government", DoT said.