SC agrees to hear telcos curative plea on AGR dues in open court The SC, however, in July 2021 dismissed their review petition seeking rectification of errors and also barred them from self-assessing their dues.:-Financial Express Oct 10,2023

The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear curative petitions filed by Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel citing arithmetical errors in calculation of adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues by the department of telecommunications (DoT), in an open court. Normally, the court hears review and curative petitions in the chambers of the judges concerned. The apex court, has, however, not listed any specific date to hear the case.

A curative petition can be filed before the Supreme Court after a review petition following a final order is dismissed. In October 2019, the Supreme Court had upheld the DoT’s definition of AGR and asked all the incumbent telecom operators to pay dues totalling Rs 1.69 trillion calculated till FY17. Later on the prayer of the telcos, the apex court, allowed them to pay the amount in equal installments spread over a 10-year period.Post the verdict, telecom operators filed a review petition in the Supreme Court, citing calculation errors and highlighting a significant mismatch between their calculation and that of the DoT’s.

The SC, however, in July 2021 dismissed their review petition seeking rectification of errors and also barred them from self-assessing their dues.

As per DoT’s calculation, the total liability on Vodafone Idea was Rs 58,254 crore, and on Bharti Airtel was Rs 43,980 crore till FY17. However, based on the self assessment by telcos, Vodafone Idea said its actual liability is around Rs 21,533 crore, whereas Bharti Airtel calculated its liability to be Rs 13,004 crore.

In August 2021 too, both Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel had filed a review petition against the Supreme Court’s July 2021 verdict. “It is a travesty of justice that the petitioner is restrained from questioning arithmetical errors/omissions, which are going to cost the petitioner approximately Rs 25,000 crore,” Vodafone Idea had said in its review petition.

In the verdict, telcos are being represented by senior advocates Harish Salve and KK Venugopal. The fresh plea was mentioned by Salve on Monday before a bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra.

Following the news of SC agreeing to hear the curative petition in open court, shares of Vodafone Idea on Monday rose as much as 4% to touched the day’s high of Rs 11.38, before closing at Rs 10.90.

Last week, DoT dismissed the objections raised by Vodafone Idea in respect to licence fee demands amounting to Rs 3,273 crore (Rs 1,749 crore and Rs 1,524 crore respectively) for fiscal years 2016-17.