HC orders status quo in cellular phone case

By Our Staff Reporter

CHENNAI, JULY 18. The Government's decision to introduce a fourth Cellular Mobile Telephone Service operator in various telecom service areas has run into rough weather with the Madras High Court ordering maintenance of ``status quo as on today until further orders''. Admitting a writ petition filed by Ms. K. Chandra of Chennai, the First Bench comprising the Chief Justice, Mr. N.K. Jain, and Mr. Justice P. Thangavel also ordered notices, returnable in four weeks, to the Secretary of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

The petitioner has prayed for an interim injunction restraining the respondents from proceeding further with the financial bids for licences to the fourth operator for Cellular Mobile Telephone Services, pending disposal of her writ petition.

According to her, the DoT was in the process of allotting the airwaves (frequency spectrum) to the fourth cellular licence bidders at very low prices. Claiming that the exercise, which should have fetched about Rs. 5,000 crores, had attracted just Rs. 1,290 crores, she accused the Government of frittering away national resources worth crores of rupees against public interest.

``The invitation of bids for fourth cellular licence has been deliberately made and designed to favour the major basic telecom operators, who have not been able to enter the mobile telecom sector as yet,'' the petition added.

In this regard, it said the Reliance Group itself had submitted 15 bids each through two of its group companies. Alleging ``unfair bidding process'', the petitioner said that instead of rejecting both sets of their bidding or taking punitive action against them, the Government allowed Reliance to simply withdraw one set of its bids.

The genuine, prospective bidders for the fourth cellular licence are uncertain whether to bid or not, as they are unaware of the quantum of annual licence fee, interconnection terms, number of operators in a given service area and about the scope of services of the different mobile operations, Ms. Chandra contended.

``The fourth cellular licence bidding process deserves to be stalled at least until the prevailing uncertainties affecting the process and quantum of monetary bids are finally settled,'' she said.

Only this can ensure that true and correct monetary bids are submitted by genuine bidders in a fair and transparent process. On January 5, 2001 the DoT issued guidelines for introduction of the fourth cellular operator, and on January 25 it issued the guidelines to permit the Fixed Operators to provide mobile services, thus creating a totally uncertain policy and regulatory environment in the mobile telephony. These guidelines themselves have been challenged in various judicial forums, the petitioner said, adding the fate of Fixed Operators providing mobile services was uncertain since the matter was sub-judice.

Under these circumstances, the action of the DoT and the TRAI in proceeding with the fourth cellular licence bidding process was completely illegal, Ms. Chandra said.

Noting that the licensing process was completely ill- timed, she sought court directions forbearing the DoT and TRAI from awarding or granting any licences to the fourth operator for cellular mobile telephone services, until all unsettled issues and pending disputes were finally adjudicated.

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