The Aditya Birla Group company, Idea Cellular, on Tuesday filed a clarificatory application in the Supreme Court, over the cancellation of its telecom licences.
On February 2, the Supreme Court had cancelled 122 licences of eight telecom operators in the country that were issued in 2008. Nine licences held by Idea have been also cancelled as a part of the SC verdict. “Idea Cellular has on Tuesday filed a clarificatory application with the Registrar, restricted only to the UASL applications made by Idea in June 2006,” Idea said in a statement.
In the statement, Idea said as noted by the SC, its licence applications were covered by clause 23 of the UASL guidelines dated December 14, 2005. They were required to be processed within 30 days of their application.
“Factually, within the 30-day period, there was no other applicant. Idea's licence applications were unjustly delayed until 2008, otherwise they fall in the same category as other 2004 and 2006 UASL applications mentioned in the judgment, which do not form part of the cancelled licences, the company said.
Idea's move is expected to be followed by some of the other seven operators whose licences have been cancelled. Uninor, Etisalat and Sistema-Shyam have already made their intention of filing a review petition on the judgment.
