AGR case: Telecom majors seek open court hearing in Supreme Court

Telecom majors, including Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea, on Wednesday sought an open court hearing of their pleas seeking review of certain directions of the Supreme Court on recovery of past dues amounting to Rs 1.47 lakh crore from telecom service providers. The recovery of past dues by the government was based on adjusted gross revenue of about Rs 92,000 crore.

The plea seeking an open court hearing was mentioned before a bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra, who said he will take a decision after talking to Chief Justice S A Bobde.

The Supreme Court had on October 24 last year upheld the AGR definition formulated by the Department of Telecom (DoT) and termed as “frivolous” the nature of objections raised by telecom service providers.