Telecom to be free of litigation- Ashwini Vaishnaw

Telecom to be free of litigation: Ashwini Vaishnaw

Telecom has been the most litigious sector, but going forward around 80% of disputes would get settled at the department level and 99% at the telecom tribunal level, communications and IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told FE.

The minister said that the newly-enacted telecom law has put in place an online dispute resolution mechanism between users, service platforms, and the government.

The Act stipulates appointment of an adjudicating officer as well as a separate designated appeals committee (DAC) before a case goes to the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) level for resolution.

The minister said that he was sure that going forward this template will be adopted by other sectors of the economy as well.

Only cases like the `25,000-crore one-time spectrum charge (OTSC) matter, which are before the courts, would remain outside the purview of the Act, and courts will resolve them, said Vaishnaw.

The OTSC case dates back to 2008 and is pending before various high courts as well as the Supreme Court. The charge has been levied by the department of telecommunications (DoT) on the operators for holding excess spectrum beyond 4.4 MHz. In 2013, the government had raised the demand from telcos to pay for additional spectrum bundled with licences issued prior to the Supreme Court judgment in the 2G case.

Welcoming the online dispute resolution mechanism, legal experts said that it will surely help in reducing litigation in the sector. However, they added that the government should look at strengthening the capacity of TDSAT to deal with cases in a timely manner.

Shashank Mishra, partner at Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co, said, “While disputes between telcos and the government on issues like the adjusted gross revenue (AGR) will likely need to still be resolved by the courts, disputes between telcos and consumers in particular are likely to be resolved much faster and with minimal court involvement with online dispute resolution.”

According to Mishra, now greater number of cases are expected to come to the TDSAT, and therefore the government must ensure that it has the capacity to make the dispute resolution mechanism under the statute successful.

“The number of cases before the TDSAT has been increasing consistently due in part to an addition to its responsibilities in January 2004 to deal also with disputes pertaining to cable and broadcasting services,” said Bharat Chugh, Supreme Court advocate and former judge.

According to Chugh, the telecom Act will definitely put more load on TDSAT, but the solution lies in increasing the strength of the members and providing adequate resources for the increased strength for efficient working.

One of the ways which legal experts said that could lead to improvement in the working of TDSAT is through the amendment of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) Act.

Chugh said the Trai Act needs to be amended to allow TDSAT to hire its own staff as per its requirement and also permit it to charge its expenses to the Consolidated Fund of India instead of relying upon DoT.

Ashish Kothari, partner, dispute resolution at King Stubb & Kasiva, Advocates & Attorneys, also said that the telecom tribunal should be further strengthened.

Vodafone Idea CEO Akshaya Moondra had last year urged for structural changes to prevent avoidable litigation in the sector. In a call with analysts, he had said that a large part of demand for litigation comes from income tax matters even if the judgment on the matters has been pronounced by the courts earlier.