The Hindu Business Line : Telecom dispute: What the dissenting member said

EVEN as the majority ruling by the Telecom Dispute Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) has given its stamp of approval to limited mobility services, the minority ruling by Mr Justice D.P. Wadhwa, Chairperson, has categorically stated that the Government had a pre-determined mind in allowing basic operators to offer the service, which was not only "invalid", but also a "breach of contractual terms" with the cellular operators.

In a hard-hitting order, he said that value-added services were not part of the basic services and they were considered as separate services. The DoT record showed that it was hurrying the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India to send its recommendations on WLL, as if to meet some deadline. That apart, the DoT had already incorporated the clause in the basic service licence to enable operators to offer WLL service before the TRAI recommendations were received.

"DoT suppressed its earlier decisions which prohibited mobility in any form or use of handset and then overturned the same without reason. How a well-informed decision of the Government could be ignored or overturned, we are unable to comprehend. A well considered decision was overturned without even bat of eyelid and the speed with which the impunged decision was taken cannot be explained otherwise than that it was because of extraneous considerations," Mr Wadhwa said.

The order further said that facts were hidden from the Group on Telecom and IT (GoT-IT) by the DoT, because of which the clearance for the policy was given.

Licence agreement was a contract document and this had been acquired by the petitioner (COAI) for enormous benefits. Under the licence agreement cellular operators had absolute right to provide cellular mobile services. No one could infringe upon this right. By allowing the fixed service providers to offer limited mobility service it was a breach of the licence agreement, he said.

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