Even as telecom companies studied on Thursday’s judgement of the Supreme Court cancelling 122 telecom licences, lawyers say there aren’t many options for the affected companies.
Senior lawyers of the Supreme Court see only limited legal options for these firms to pursue. The first among these is filing a review petition in the Supreme Court. For this, the companies can approach the court again, requesting it for permission to argue their case before a larger bench of the apex court.
Predictably, most affected telecom companies have refused to divulge the details of their future strategy, but said they were considering a review petition. Also, they were exploring legal angles such as curative plea and arbitration under the bilateral investment treaty, since most companies have a substantial foreign stake.
Even so, senior lawyers of the Supreme Court warn of the dangers in filing a review petition. They sense strong grounds for the court to reject such a petition, given that the order of cancelling the licences has come from the apex court itself. “The chances of legal recourse are very bleak. The order is, after all, the apex court’s,” notes senior advocate Aman Lekhi.
Further, lawyers say that filing a review petition can also go against these companies. “Today’s judgment has no adverse comment against any of the companies,” notes senior Supreme Court advocate K T S Tulsi. “Approaching the court again may end up drawing such comments that can affect the proceedings in the trial court,” he adds.
The government, too, has the option of filing a review petition. However, this seems unlikely, as the ruling dispensation has “welcomed” the the court decision.
Lawyers say a more “prudent” option with the telecom companies will be to negotiate with the government within the four months that the court has provided. “The companies should talk to the government,” says senior advocate Majeed Memon. There could be a large number of cases as a fallout of this judgement, as many parties affected by it will approach the court, he notes.
Other lawyers say companies wanting to get back their licence fee (Rs 1,000 crore in all, with government at this point) will have to approach the apex court individually. This would mean another round of litigation. They also say it is likely the licence fee would be returned to the companies if the court found the loss was caused by a wrong policy of the government and not because of any individual wrongdoing by these companies. In the reverse scenario, no money will be repaid to these companies.
A senior government law officer, on condition of anonymity, says “the ball is now in the government’s court”. He notes that the telecom companies, instead of approaching the court again, can either wait for the government to take a decision on the auctioning of spectrum or ask it to return their invested money.
With inputs from Mansi Taneja
