Inopportune step: Rs 3,050-crore penalty on Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea revives legal dispute

The telecom sector is set to witness a fresh round of litigation between the operators and the department of telecommunications, thus upsetting the government’s intent of putting in place a second set of reforms aiming to put an end to legal battles.

The industry – operators like Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea – received a jolt when late evening on September 30, the DoT sent notices to them asking to pay a cumulative penalty of Rs 3,050 crore within three weeks. This penalty was recommended by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) way back in 2016, ratified by the Digital Communications Commission, the highest, inter-ministerial, policy making body in the DoT in July 2019, but held back by the telecom minister since then.