Bharti, Idea get relief from HC in one-time fee case

The government had sought to raise nearly Rs 21,000 crore by imposing this additional fee. The two telecom companies Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular had moved to Bombay High Court with respect to the one-time spectrum fee.

The telecom majors have challenged it on the grounds that under Section 4 of the Telegraph Act, the government does not have any positive powers or sanction by the law so to speak. That is the version coming in from the lawyers who sought to give the image that the government at this point does not have the powers.

At this point Bharti Airtel has been slapped with one-time spectrum fee of about Rs 5,200 crore and Idea has been confronted with a burden of about Rs 2,000 crore. Now, the critical element here is that a similar order of a stay has been granted for both these parties. As of now, the one-time spectrum fee has been stayed until March 1.