The Calcutta High Court has granted a stay order to Reliance Communications with regard to one-time fee imposed by the Department of Telecom for holding excess CDMA spectrum.

The stay has been granted till April 19. The DoT had slapped a one-time fee of Rs 1,757 crore on RCom for holding CDMA airwaves beyond 2.5 MHz. According to the DoT, spectrum beyond this based on subscriber linked criteria without charging any additional fee.

RCom moved court on April 4 challenging the DoT order on grounds that it has already paid up front for the spectrum and whatever airwaves was allocated to it by the DoT was as per the licence contract.

Earlier, in February, the Calcutta HC had granted a stay to RCom on DoT's demand for one-time payment for GSM spectrum. RCom had not contested the entire demand then, but only the demand on contracted spectrum, which part amounted to a total of Rs 168 crore. Any additional spectrum that RCom held was surrendered by the company.

RCom’s contention is that there was no logic or merit in seeking a one-time payment for contracted spectrum mid-way through the licence period. The DoT has imposed one-time charges on all mobile operators, including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea cellular, for holding excess spectrum.

Ravi Ruia moves apex court

A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court on behalf of Ravi Ruia challenging the order of the 2G Special Court summoning him in the excess spectrum case.

Ruia was summoned on grounds that he had chaired some of the meetings of Sterling Cellular Ltd (now Vodafone India), he was thus the ‘alter-ego’ and ‘directing mind of the will’ of the company.

Ruia has not been named in the charge-sheet filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation and neither was he ever investigated in regard with this matter.

>thomas.thomas@thehindu.co.in

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