SC to hear next week telecom cos' plea for new payment schedule

The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to list next week the fresh pleas of telecom firms, including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and Tata Teleservices, seeking a fresh schedule of payment of statutory dues to the tune of Rs 1.47 lakh crore to the department of telecommunications. 

A bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde took note of the submissions by a battery of senior lawyers including A M Singhvi and C A Sundaram and said it will list the fresh pleas "sometime in next week" before the same bench which had heard the earlier petition in the high-stake matter. 

"We are not disputing the payment to be made by us rather we want working out of fresh schedule of payment," Sundaram told the bench which also comprised justices S A Nazeer and Sanjiv Khanna. 

The telcos said they wanted an open court hearing on their fresh pleas with regard to working out fresh schedule of payment of their dues. 

"That (open court or in-chamber hearing) will be decided by the bench concerned," the CJI said. 

Earlier, on January 16, a bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra had dismissed review petitions of telecom firms seeking a review of its earlier order asking them to pay Rs 1.47 lakh crore in statutory dues by January 23, saying it did not find any "justifiable reason" to entertain them.

Photograph: Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters.