National

SC to hear cell operators' plea on Monday

By Our Legal Correspondent

NEW DELHI NOV. 7. The Supreme Court will hear on Monday the appeals filed by cellular operators against an order of the Telecom Disputes Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) upholding the Government's decision to permit the basic operators to offer WLL mobile services.

When the appeals came up for hearing today before a Bench, comprising the Chief Justice V.N. Khare, and Justice S.B. Sinha, it directed the matter be listed on Monday before a Bench headed by Justice S. Rajendra Babu.

The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) has challenged the August 8 decision of the TDSAT given by its "two non-judicial members", saying that the minority verdict of the Tribunal's Chairman, Justice D.P. Wadhwa, terming the WLL services illegal should be upheld as it was the correct interpretation of the National Telecom Policy-99.The COAI said that Mr. Justice Wadhwa's view was "the first definitive pronouncement in relation to the rights of a licensee and the obligation of a licensor and as to whether the Government as a licensor can unilaterally and arbitrarily alter the basic and fundamental terms of the licence agreement."

The COAI has raised questions of law on "whether WLL now found permissible by the majority judgment is in effect a permission to provide cellular mobile service and therefore, contrary to the New Telecom Policy of 1999."

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