The Court also issued notices to Reliance Infocomm and other respondents on the petition of BSNL challenging the High Court order stating that it will decide both the jurisdictional aspects and the merit of the petition together.
BSNL had contended that the issue pertaining to re-routing of calls fell within the jurisdiction of the telecom dispute tribunal TDSAT and hence, the petition of Reliance should be transferred to the tribunal for adjudication.
However, Reliance had said the High Court also had the jurisdiction to hear its petition challenging BSNL's decision to levy the penalty on it.
Reliance Infocomm, headed by Mukesh Ambani, has so far paid Rs 294 crore (Rs 2.94 billion) to the two public sector telecom companies, BSNL and MTNL, as against the demand of Rs 504 crore (Rs 5.04 billion) for violation of Interconnect Usage Charge Agreement.
Of this, over Rs 180 crore (Rs 1.8 billion) was paid by Reliance to BSNL on the direction of the Delhi High Court and the balance of about Rs 114 crore (Rs 1.14 billion) to MTNL.
Besides this, Reliance has also paid Rs 150 crore (Rs 1.5 billion) to the government as penalty for violation of licensing conditions by routing international calls as local ones.
Reliance had challenged in TDSAT, the deparment of telecommunication's decision to impose penalty. But after losing the case, the private telecom operator deposited Rs 150 crore earlier this month.
