HC rejects RBI’s intervention plea in Tata-DoCoMo case

New Delhi, April 28 

The Delhi High Court today rejected the RBI’s intervention plea in the Tata-DoCoMo case while taking on record the terms of consent of the settlement between Japanese telecom major NTT DoCoMo and Tata Sons over the payment of $1.17 billion damages to the former.

Justice S Muralidhar in his verdict rejected the RBI’s intervention plea opposing the settlement as well as the damages awarded to DoCoMo by the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA).

The court said it has given detailed directions in its judgment and disposed of the plea by DoCoMo seeking enforcement of the LCIA award.

The court had reserved its verdict on March 15.

DoCoMo and Tata had gone for arbitration as the Indian company was not able to find a buyer for the Japanese telecom major’s 26.5% stake in their joint venture, Tata Teleservices Ltd (TTSL), when it exited from it.

Under the shareholding agreement between them, on Docomo’s exit from the venture within five years, Tata was to find a buyer who would purchase the Japanese company’s stake at minimum 50% of the acquisition price, which came to around Rs 58.45 per share.

The other option was Tata purchasing the shares at the fair market value, which was Rs 23.44. However, this was not acceptable to Docomo and it had opted for arbitration.

Thereafter, the LCIA in June 2016 awarded damages of $1.17 billion in favour of Docomo for Tata’s inability to find a buyer as per the shareholding agreement. — PTI