DoT files caveat in SC on call routing case

The government on Saturday filed a caveat in the Supreme court pre-empting Reliance Infocomm’s move to get an ex-parte relief against the TDSAT order upholding the Rs 150 crore penalty imposed by the Department of Telecom (DoT) on the private operator for routing international calls as local ones.

DoT officials said the department had moved the apex court in anticipation of Reliance Infocomm challenging the TDSAT order there. The development comes a day after Reliance received a major blow when Telecom Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) dismissed its petition challenging Rs 150 crore penalty imposed on it by the government and termed as “unscrupulous” the method employed by the company to camouflage international calls as local calls.

After the rejection of its petition in the tribunal, Reliance Counsel Mukul Rohtagi had said, “We will challenge the decision in the Supreme Court on Monday.’’ Sources in the company said the issue is still being debated on how to proceed, indicating that one of options that could be considerd is to pay up the fine.