Reliance Info told to pay Rs 150 cr

The appellate telecom tribunal, TDSAT on Friday dismissed Reliance Infocomm's petition challenging a penalty of Rs 150 crore (Rs 1.5 billion) imposed on it by the government for diverting incoming international calls as local calls.

The judgement would mean that Reliance would have to pay the penalty of Rs 150 crore immediately.

Rejecting the Reliance plea that it did not violate any licencing norms and re-routing of calls was well within its purview, a three member TDSAT Bench, headed by chairman Justice D P Wadhwa, dismissed the petition saying the breach has put the "security of the nation in jeopardy".

Reliance Infocomm said it would challenge the decision in the Supreme Court on Monday.

Immediately after the TDSAT judgement, Reliance Infocomm counsel Mukul Rohatgi, whose request for time was rejected by the Tribunal, said, "we will challenge the decision in the Supreme Court on Monday.

The Bench, which also includes members Vinod Vaish and D P Sehgal, said "Having regard to all the circumstances, including the subject matter of license, the performance of the license provisions which have been breached, the circumstances in which breach was committed and the consequences of the breach, putting the security of the nation in jeopardy, we do not find it a fit case to be interfered with. "Petition is dismissed with cost," it said.

Reliance Infocomm, headed by Mukesh Ambani, has so far paid Rs 294 crore (Rs 2.94 billion) to the two public sector telecom companies, BSNL and MTNL, as against the demand of Rs 504 crore (Rs 5.04 billion) for violation of Interconnect Usage Charge Agreement.

Of this, over Rs 180 crore (Rs 1.8 billion) was paid by Reliance to BSNL on the direction of the Delhi High Court and the case is still pending.

Challenging the January 17 order of the deparment of telecom imposing the penalty for routing of the calls, Reliance Infocomm had moved TDSAT on January 19.

The Reliance petition said that "There is no justification in DoT's decision to impose penalty" as there was no violation of any of the licence's clause.

"The DoT appears to have taken the decision to impose penalty on us (Reliance Infocomm) with a pre-determined mind without taking into consideration the provisions of the license," the company had said in its reply to DoT.

In a point-wise response to the findings by DoT for imposing the penalty, Reliance Infocomm said the change in Caller Line Identification was a normal feature of operator-assisted services.

In its response to submission by Reliance, DoT had said last month that the reply by the private operator "established the intentions of the petitioners to continue its deceptions for as long as possible."