SC says pleas by telcos on statutory dues will be heard next week

The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to list next week the fresh pleas of telecom firms, including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and Tata Teleservices, seeking a fresh schedule of payment of statutory dues to the tune of Rs 1.47 trillion to the Department of Telecommunications.

A bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde took note of submissions by a battery of senior lawyers including A M Singhvi and C A Sundaram and said it will list the fresh pleas “sometime in next week” before the same bench which had heard the earlier petition in the high-stake matter.

“We are not disputing the payment to be made by us rather we want working out of fresh schedule of payment,” Sundaram told the bench which also comprised justices S A Nazeer and Sanjiv Khanna.