TDSAT bench dismisses Reliance Infocomm's petition
Friday, March 4 2005 11:18 Hrs (IST) - World Time - 
New Delhi:
Telecom Dispute Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) today (Mar 4, 2005) dismissed Reliance Infocomm's petition challenging a penalty of Rs 150 crore imposed on it by Government for violation of licensing norms.
Following the decision by the full Bench of TDSAT headed by Justice D P Wadhwa, Reliance said that it would challenge the decision in Supreme Court.
"We will challenge the decision in the Supreme Court on Monday (Mar 7, 2005)," Reliance Infocomm counsel Mukul Rohtagi said.
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Reliance Infocomm, headed by Mukesh Ambani, has so far paid Rs 294 crore to the two public sector telecom companies, Bharati Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL), as against the demand of Rs 504 crore for violation of Interconnect Usage Charge Agreement. Of this, over Rs 180 crore were 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 Department of Telecom (DoT) imposing the penalty for routing of the calls, Reliance Infocomm had moved TDSAT on January 19.
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Reliance petition said that "there is no justification in DoT's decision to impose penalty" as there was no violation of any of the license'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 change in Caller Line Identification (CLI) 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."
PTI
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