The apex court's latest ruling has only added to legal and
policy confusion prevailing in the sector. It needs to be
reviewed
The recent judgment of the Supreme Court in Union of India
v. Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India
(October 24, 2019), referred to as "AGR judgment",
requires to be reconsidered by a larger Bench. This is necessary as
the existing judgments of the Supreme Court, which serve as
precedents on the matter, can only be effectively addressed by
reference to a larger Bench. Such a definitive assessment is
required for the Government to be able to address the other
fallouts arising from the case.
The AGR judgement has held as follows:
The licence fee for grant of licence to build,
maintain and operate telegraphs issued under Section 4 of the
Indian Telegraph Act (ITA) need not be limited to revenue from the
licensed operations but would cover all revenue of the licensee
even from operations and sources not licensed under
