Breather for Bharti as Delhi HC stays Rs 350 cr penalty

The Delhi High Court has stayed a penalty of Rs 350 crore imposed on Bharti by the DoT (Department of Telecommunications) for offering 3G services in seven telecom circles where it doesn't have 3G spectrum. CNBC-TV18’s Malvika Jain reports. (Read more)

The customers of Bharti Airtel in the 7 telecom circles can continue to enjoy 3G services because the Delhi High Court today said that this penalty of Rs 350 crore has been stayed. As far as the companies operations are concerned they can continue but the court has directed Bharti Airtel to maintain a separate ledger account of revenues which it is collecting from these 3G subscribers, submit details of the subscribers with the High Court and the revenue in a separate bank account. This is because if later it is found that these 3G intra-circle roaming pacts which Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea have entered to offer pan India 3G services and offer services in circles where they do not have spectrum is found to be illegal then this amount can be given to the government. Bharti has also been directed to submit bank guarantees to the tune of Rs 350 crore. As of now it is a breather for the company and the customers can continue to enjoy 3G services Even after a breather, Bharti's stock fell almost 3 percent on Monday to close at Rs 308 after media reports indicated that the company is likely to face another show cause notice for sharing its 3G airwaves with Vodafone and Idea.