Show past balance sheets, telcos told
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, June 18
The Supreme Court on Thursday asked private telecom companies to furnish their books of accounts and balance sheets of past 10 years to prove their financial ability to clear the dues on account of adjusted gross revenue (AGR). Private telecom companies, including Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel, filed affidavits explaining how they intended to clear their AGR dues.
Asking the Centre to consider their proposals, the court posted the matter for further hearing in July after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said the Department of Telecom needed time to study the proposals and file its response. The telcos want to make staggered payment of their AGR dues and the government has supported their position.
At the very outset, Mehta told the Bench that the Centre has decided to withdraw demands of more than Rs 3.70 lakh crore from non-telecom public sector undertakings. On June 11, the court had asked the DoT to reconsider the demands raised against PSUs on the basis of its 2019 judgment on AGR. The verdict couldn’t have been used for raising demands from PSUs, it had said.
SC refuses to stay Guj RS poll
The Supreme Court on Thursday turned down a Gujarat Congress leader’s plea to stay the Rajya Sabha elections in the state scheduled to be held tomorrow.
A Bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde, however, agreed to consider Congress leader Paresh Dhanani’s petition challenging the Election Commission’s June 17 notification for the Rajya Sabha polls through postal ballot.
