Shock to telecom companies from Supreme Court, curative petition related to irregularities in AGR calculation rejected

New Delhi| In a blow to telecom companies, the Supreme Court has rejected petitions filed by several companies, including Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel, seeking rectification of alleged errors in adjusted gross revenue (AGR). A bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice BR Gavai also rejected the petition of the telecom companies. In the petition, a demand was made to list the curative petitions for hearing in open court.

A curative petition is the last resort in the Supreme Court, after which there is no legal way to approach this court. It is normally considered in camera, pending a case for reconsideration of the judgment at first instance. The bench passed the order on August 30, which was made public on Thursday. Court said, ‘‘ the application for listing of curative petitions in open court is dismissed. We have looked into the curative petitions and related documents. We hold that no case is made out within the parameters stated in the decision of this Court in Rupa Ashok Hurra v. Ashok Hurra. Correctional petitions are dismissed.’’

The apex court had considered the arguments of some telecom companies on October 9 last year. These requested listing of their petitions on the Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) outstanding issue. The Court had earlier in July 2021 rejected a petition seeking to rectify errors in the demand for AGR dues. Telecom companies had moved the apex court claiming that there were several errors in fixing AGR dues, totaling more than Rs 1 lakh crore.