The Delhi high court on Friday asked state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd to maintain a status quo on the question of interconnect agreement with Reliance Infocomm, which has been accused by the public sector giant of routing international calls as local ones.
The direction came from a Bench of Justice Vijender Jain and Justice Anil Kumar who directed Reliance Infocomm to deposit Rs 40 crore (Rs 400 million) with BSNL by Monday (November 8).
BSNL has earlier said that it would disconnect Reliance's connections by 6 p.m. on Friday, if the private telecom operator does not pay Rs 254 crore (Rs billion) (Rs 2.54 billion) for routing international calls as local.
BSNL's action would have meant that Reliance mobile subscribers would not have been able to speak to BSNL subscribers and vice versa.
BSNL has already disconnected Reliance Infocomm's links in Bangalore and Nashik.
Reliance Infocomm on Friday challenged the single bench order of the Delhi high court which rejected the company's plea to restrain BSNL from disconnecting 'points of interconnection' due to the private telecom operator's failure to pay the dues.
BSNL had given time till Friday evening to Reliance to pay or face disconnection. The state-run telecom giant had imposed a financial bill of Rs 182 crore (Rs billion) till October 29 which has gone up to Rs 254 crore (Rs billion) till November 2.
The division Bench, which heard an appeal by Reliance Infocomm against Thursday's order by a single judge bench, asked BSNL to file its reply to the private telecom operator's appeal and posted the matter for further hearing on November 30.
In an interim order, the court also directed Reliance to file an affidavit confirming that it has stopped routing of international calls as local ones with wrong Caller Line Identification.
