The Hindu Business Line : Court order may open doors for more mobile players

New Delhi, July 2 More than 20 companies including AT&T, Moser Baer, Sterlite Technologies and Hinduja Group can hope to get a mobile licence with the Delhi High Court quashing the decision by the Ministry of Communications to leave out applications submitted after September 25, 2007.

These companies were not given the licences after the Department of Telecom changed the cut-off date from October 1, 2007 to September 25, on the ground that it had received too many applications.

Terming the change in the cut-off date as arbitrary, the High Court said, “the respondent (DoT) cannot be allowed to arbitrarily change the cut-off date and that too without any justifiable reason. The respondents having failed to satisfy the court as to how any public interest would be affected in the matter, the impugned press release dated January 10, 2008 (in which the DoT announced the change in cut-off date) is quashed.”

The petition challenging the DoT’s order was filed by the Chennai-based STel, which did not get cellular licences for 16 circles due to the change in the cut-off date. STel had made its applications on September 28, 2007. The court said that the DoT has failed to answer the crucial question as to what was the rationale and the basis for fixing September 25 as the cut-off date.

“Even otherwise, admittedly 232 applications were made by September 25; and between September 25 and October 1 only 76 applications were received. Thus, on September 28 it cannot be said that a large number of applications were received. The respondent cannot be allowed to change the rules of the game after the game had begun,” the court order said.

The court observed that, on the one hand, the DoT had accepted the telecom regulator’s recommendation of not putting a cap on the number of mobile players, and on the other, it acted contrary thereto by amending the cut-off date and placing a de facto cap on the number of service providers.

The DoT had refused licences to 23 companies that had submitted their applications between September 25 and October 1, 2007. This includes Acme Tele Power, Ispat Industry, BPTP Ltd, Cellebrum.com, JSW Power Trading Company and Ballasore Alloys.