Supreme Court rejects telecom firms' pleas on AGR dues | Fusion - WeRIndia

The Supreme Court has dismissed petitions from telecom companies challenging its October 2019 ruling, which mandated them to pay ₹92,000 crore in Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) dues to the Department of Telecom (DoT).

This latest verdict reinforces the court’s original stance on the long-standing dispute over the calculation of AGR.

A bench led by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, along with Justices Sanjiv Khanna and B R Gavai, denied the telecom companies’ plea for an open court hearing.

Curative petitions, which offer a last resort for unresolved grievances, are generally handled in judges’ chambers.

The court, in its August 30 order, clarified that no grounds were found to warrant a hearing.

It stated that the petitions did not meet the criteria established in the Rupa Ashok Hurra case, which introduced the concept of curative petitions.

The AGR dispute has persisted since 2003 when the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) ruled that some revenue streams were not subject to AGR.

However, in 2011, the Supreme Court ruled that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and TDSAT lacked jurisdiction to redefine AGR terms in the telecom licence agreement, leaving the original government interpretation intact.

In its October 2019 decision, the Supreme Court upheld the DoT’s right to recover approximately ₹1.6 lakh crore from telecom companies, defining AGR as per the telecom license agreement.

Despite the government’s request to allow telecom firms 20 years to repay due to financial difficulties, the court settled on a 10-year repayment plan. Beginning in April 2021, telecom companies must pay 10% of the dues by March 31 each year.

Further, in July 2021, the court rejected applications from telecom operators seeking corrections of arithmetic errors in the AGR calculations.

Thus, the apex court reaffirmed its stance and closed any further debate on the issue.

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