SC to hear Centre's plea against TDSAT order on bank guarantee of Vodafone Idea

The Supreme Court Monday sought response from Vodafone Idea on the Centre's plea challenging the TDSAT order which asked DoT to return bank guarantees worth nearly Rs 2,100 crore to the company. A bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose issued the notice and tagged the Centre's petition along with similar pleas pending in the court.

The Centre had sought bank guarantee from Vodafone Idea as one-time spectrum charges (OTSC) as a pre-condition for approving the merger of Vodafone India and Idea Cellular. The bank guarantee was given but subsequently challenged by the telecom companies before Telecom Dispute Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) which earlier this year directed the Department of Telecom (DoT) to refund the amount to Vodafone Idea in two months.