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Delhi HC clears telecom package

The Delhi high court said today the National Telecom Policy 1999 must be fully implemented as the new cabinet has already approved it.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice S N Variava and Justice S K Mahajan also took note of the President's address to the nation which had reference to empowering the regulator for pushing ahead with telecom reforms.

The NTP 99 seeks to migrate from a fixed licence fee for private operators to a nominal entry fee and a revenue sharing formula with the Department of Telecommunications. The cabinet headed by Prime Minister A B Vajpayee cleared the policy on October 21. If there is any reduction in rentals for cellular subscribers, the judges said, it should be passed on as part of the migration package.

However, Solicitor-General Harish Salve said the issue of fixing rentals has to be dealt with by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. A separate petition, which seeks lowering of rentals and blocking of the Calling Party Pays system is pending before the same bench. Salve said all parties had cleared outstanding dues to the DoT as desired by the court. Also, the next Budget session is unlikely to take up NTP 99 despite two pending motions by members of Parliament.

The court was hearing a Public Interest Litigation filed by Delhi Science Forum, a non-governmental organisation, which called for a debate in Parliament before the NTP comes into force. Its counsel, Indira Jaisingh also told the court today that some companies had defaulted on paying dues to the DoT. The judges, however, cleared the telecom package and fixed January 24 as the date for the next hearing.

UNI

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