A bench comprising of Justices Arun Mishra, S Abdul Nazeer and M R Shah is hearing the case
SC AGR Hearing HIGHLIGHTS: The Supreme Court continued hearing the case on non-payment of the adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues by telcos under insolvency, and reserved the judgement on spectrum liability. A bench comprising of Justices Arum Mishra, MR Shah and S Abdul Nazeer heard the case. Earlier in July 20 hearing, the top court reserved its order on a 20-year timeline for staggered payment of AGR dues by telecom companies such as Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and Tata Teleservices. During the hearing today, the SC said if telcos are unwilling to pay, we will direct cancellation of spectrum allocation. Senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for Reliance Jio, said if it is cancelled, the government will not get anything and even banks would get nothing. The top court said if the spectrum is subject to the resolution process, government dues will be wiped out. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said that under trading guidelines all past dues should be cleared prior to spectrum trading. DoT can seek to recover dues from seller and buyers, jointly or severally. When SC asked Solicitor General Mehta that why no demand was raised on Videocon, SG replied that it is in the process. The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) said that telcos are supposed to make two payments. When a telco participates in an auction, some amount is to be paid at the threshold while the remaining amount is to be paid in instalments over 15 years.