TDSAT reserves order on Reliance-DoT penalty row
Tuesday, February 15 2005 15:31 Hrs (IST) - World Time - 
New Delhi:
Telecom Dispute Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) has reserved judgement on Reliance's appeal challenging the penalty of Rs 150 crore imposed by the Government for illegal routing of international calls as local ones.
Arguments concluded today (Feb 15, 2005) with Reliance counsel Harish Salve contesting the Government's reply that the company violated licence agreements, saying, "This is not a licensing issue. This is a contractual dispute between Reliance Infocomm and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and the Government should not have interfered."
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Now the Government will make a written submission within two days to Reliance Infocomm's rejoinder.
Salve said if the licensor was going to decide on contractual disputes, there was no need for the tribunal, that is TDSAT.
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"Contractual commercial agreements can never be licensing issues. Imposing a penalty on Reliance Infocomm for violating licence agreement is complete abuse of power," Salve said.
For a violation to invite penalty, it must have a bearing on licensing and the present case has no bearing on licensing, he said.
Countering the Government argument that the Home Country Direct Service (HCDS) was part of the International Long Distance Licence (ILDL), he said in that case how was Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) able to sell the service when it did not have an ILDL of its own.
Reliance has been arguing that HCDS was part of the Unified Access Service licence.
PTI
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