Setback to telecom companies as SC dismisses their curative petitions for correcting AGR ‘errors’
In a setback to telecom companies, the Supreme Court has dismissed their curative petitions, including those filed by Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel, seeking correction of alleged errors in calculating the Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR).
A Bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice BR Gavai said no case was made out for exercise of curative jurisdiction of the top court.
“We have gone through the Curative Petitions and the connected documents. In our opinion, no case is made out within the parameters indicated in the decision of this court in Rupa Ashok Hurra v Ashok Hurra. The Curative Petitions are dismissed,” the Bench observed in its August 30, which was made public on Thursday.
A judicially devised mechanism in Rupa Ashok Hurra v Ashok Hurra in 2002, curative petitions are considered to be the last hope for a litigant to get justice. Generally, a curative petition is not taken up in open court. They are heard by circulation among the members of the Bench. However, in exceptional cases, the top court can grant an open court hearing.
In the instant case, the Bench also turned down the plea for listing the curative petitions for an open court hearing.
On October 24, 2019, the Supreme Court had ruled that the statutory dues needed to be calculated by including non-telecom revenues in what is known as adjusted gross revenues (AGR) of telcos and asked them to pay Rs 1.47 lakh crore in past statutory dues on account of AGR.
On January 16, 2020, it dismissed the review petitions filed by Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and others seeking review of its October 24, 2019 order asking them to pay Rs 1.47 lakh crore in past statutory dues on account of AGR.
On September 1, 2020, the top court had given 10 years to telecom service providers to pay Rs 143271.74 crore AGR-related dues to the Department of Telecom (DoT) in a staggered manner.
Vodafone-Idea’s owed Rs 58,254 crore to the DoT while Bharti Airtel was to pay Rs 43,980 crore towards AGR dues.
On July 23, 2021, the top court dismissed pleas of telecom companies, including Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel, seeking re-computation of AGR-related dues payable by them as they alleged errors in calculation in their dues.
In September 2023, the Supreme Court had dismissed a PIL challenging the Centre’s decision to relax payment terms of AGR dues from them, saying it was a policy matter.
