New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice on the civil appeal filed by Reliance Jio against the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) order, dismissing its application seeking impleadment in telecom petitions, filed by Vodafone-Idea and Airtel, against demand notices issued levying penalty of Rs 3,050 crore on them.
The plea said: “It is submitted that even while rejecting RJIL’s (Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd) applications for impleadment, the impugned order implicitly recognises that RJIL is a necessary and proper party whose presence will assist the adjudication of issues…”
“It is respectfully submitted that the permission to file written notes without the opportunity to address the submissions made by the petitioners in the telecom petitions fails to accord with the basic principles of natural justice to which RJIL is entitled to, in as much as its rights and interests are directly affected by the adjudication in the telecom petitions,” it added.
A Supreme Court bench, headed by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana, sought reply from Bharti Airtel and Vodafone, on RJIL’s appeal.
The plea said the reason for the penalty on Vodafone-Idea and Airtel – collectively, the Incumbent Dominant Operators (IDOs) – was that the IDOs had wilfully denied adequate points of interconnection (POIs) to the RJIL in 2016. It added that as a consequence of this denial RJIL suffered call failures of over 10.2 crores on a daily basis.
The petitions before the TDSAT challenged the September 29, 2021 demand notices issued by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) levying a cumulative penalty of Rs 3,050 crores on Vodafone-Idea and Airtel for allegedly denying adequate POIs to RJIL in 2016.
These Supreme Court petitions arose out of complaints filed by Reliance Jio before the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).
The RJIL’s petition said that specific allegations were in the telecom petitions against RJIL, and despite pointing out these allegations, the TDSAT has held that RJIL is neither a necessary nor a proper party to the present proceedings – disabling RJIL from controverting these allegations against it – even though the TDSAT will examine these allegations and render findings on the same.
The petition said the TDSAT proceeds on the erroneous presumption that since the penalty impugned in the telecom petitions is to be covered by the DoT, it would be the only proper and necessary party to the proceedings before it. “This reasoning is demonstrably erroneous for each of the reasons set out above – and RJIL, being the complainant in the proceedings and the victim of the illegalities committed by the IDOs, could not have been denied a right of hearing in the telecom petitions,” added the petition.
