SC declines to stay TDSAT order favouring RCom on spectrum row

In a relief to Reliance Communications (RCom), the Supreme Court on Friday refused to stay a Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) order that had upheld the Anil Ambani-owned firm’s appeal in the One-Time Spectrum Charge (OTSC) petition.

In its February 4 order, TDSAT had upheld RCom’s petition that challenged the Department of Telecommunications’ (DoT) decision to impose OTSC on its contracted CDMA and GSM spectrum resources.

TDSAT held that the operator’s spectrum holdings of up to 5 MHz of CDMA and up to 6.2 MHz of GSM spectrum were exempt from OTSC levies. TDSAT had set aside OTSC on RCom’s spectrum.