Read Time: 07 minutes

Synopsis

Vodafone Idea has approached the Supreme Court by way of a curative petition filed against its earlier dismissal of a plea seeking correction of errors in demand of Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) dues. 

Senior Advocate Harish Salve mentioned the same before a bench of CJI DY Chandrachud, Justice Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra.

Court asked how long the arguments would take, to which Salve responded saying that it would only take a day.

Accordingly, the CJI-led bench has said that the papers of the matter will be circulated.

The Supreme Court in July 2021 had dismissed plea by Airtel, Vodafone and TATA seeking correction of errors in demand of AGR dues. 

A Full Bench of Justice LN Rao, Justice S Abdul Nazeer and Justice MR Shah, had concluded the hearing and reserved orders in the plea on July 19, 2021.

Pointing out that there were a number of errors that were made in arriving at those AGR Dues, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone in January, 2021 had approached the Supreme Court.

Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi appearing for Vodafone had submitted that Vodafone succeeded in TDSAT but the same was reversed by this Court and then an expanded version of AGR came into force. He further submitted that the amount was spread over 20 years and was now facing demand of Rs 58000 crore.

While praying for the Court allowing to place all these errors before the Department of Telecom, Senior Advocate Rohatgi further submitted that, 

“The figure is not cast in stone. I'm not asking for a review but I have a very simple point. Several tribunals do not have the power of review but have the power to correct arithmetical errors. Any court for the interest of Justice will take a look at the arithmetical error. I am in compliance and I don't want to delay the instalments.”

Senior Advocate Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi on behalf of Bharti Airtel submitted that Airtel was not seeking re computation of AGR dues but was only asking for the Department of Telecom to consider the issues pertaining to payments made not being accounted for; duplication and not allowing certain permissible deductions. 

“We don't want to pay thousands of crores on account of these errors,” Senior Advocate Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi had added.

Appearing for TATA Telecom, Senior Advocate Arvind Datar submitted that the judgement only prohibited re assessment and not re calculation. He also contended that within the AGR demand computation certain amounts have been taken twice.

“Errors have no bearing on the Judgement,” Senior Advocate Arvind Datar had further argued.

In September 2020, the top court had reaffirmed the dues payable by telecom companies particularly Bharti Airtel and Vodafone. It had granted 10 years to telecom firms such as Vodafone Idea, Bharti Airtel and Tata Teleservices for paying the AGR related dues to DOT with certain conditions. 

Telecom Companies were asked to pay 10% of their dues by March 31, 2021.

Pointing out that there were a number of errors that were made in arriving at those AGR Dues, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone in January, 2021 had approached the Supreme Court.

The Court thereafter reserved orders in the plea by Airtel and Vodafone and directed the Solicitor General to file response to the applications.