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Informist, Monday, Jun. 8, 2026

 

--HC sets aside govt's spectrum demand order vs Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea 

 

NEW DELHI – In relief to Bharti Airtel Ltd. and Vodafone Idea Ltd., the Bombay High Court Monday set aside the government's demand orders seeking payment of one-time spectrum charge from the telecom companies for the years 2008 to 2012. The high court said that the government was not able to justify the decision and its action of levying one-time spectrum charge retrospectively upon Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea.

 

The government had initially placed a demand of INR 52.04 billion and INR 22.00 billion against Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea respectively. However, these were later revised to INR 84.12 billion and INR 44.00 billion against Airtel and Vodafone respectively, according to media reports.

 

Consequently, bank guarantees, if any, given by the telecom company will be returned by the government, said the high court. Any steps that might have been taken by the government in pursuance of the demand notices also stand quashed and set aside, the court said.

 

The high court said that the government did not propose any modification of the terms of contract with the telecom companies and issued the demand orders abruptly and unilaterally, imposing a one-time spectrum charge retrospectively from the year 2008 on the petitioners. The government couldn't be permitted to change the contract midway to change the goal post and then claim that it took the decision in public interest, the court said. The government is bound by the terms and conditions of the contract, it said.

 

The court said that it found substance in the contention raised on behalf of the telecom companies that such decisions taken on whims by the government, which are not justifiable either under the statute or under the terms of the contract, cannot be sustained and if held otherwise, it would be impossible to conduct business. Thus, the government has not been able to identify any source of power to issue the demand notices, said the high court.

 

Private entities like the telecom companies engage with the government in contractual matters with such basic legitimate expectation involving certainty in contractual obligations, including certainty regarding consideration of contract, said the high court. The government's decisions were nothing but executive orders without any source of power, seeking to impose liability retrospectively, it said.

 

Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea had moved the court, being aggrieved by imposition of one-time spectrum charge by the government in the year 2012 for spectrum held above 6.2 MHz from the year 2008 onwards. The petitioners said that the government had no power to impose such one-time spectrum charge and that too, retrospectively. The petitioners said that neither was such source of power found in the relevant statutory provision, being Section 4 of the Telegraph Act, 1885 nor was it found in the licence agreements for allocation and use of spectrum executed between the petitioners and the government from time to time.

 

The government said that the dispute raised by the telecom companies in these petitions fell within the domain of Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal. The government said that in repeated communications, the petitioners were put to notice that they would be required to pay charge towards allocation of spectrum and therefore, they couldn't claim that they were caught by surprise or that the charge was being levied retrospectively.  

 

On Monday, shares of Bharti Airtel Ltd. ended 0.8% higher at INR 1,813.30 on the National Stock Exchange, and those of Vodafone Idea Ltd. ended 3.7% lower at INR 14.40.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Avishek Dutta

 

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