HC directs Reliance Jio to show bank guarantee in Airtel case
CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has directed Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited at Mylapore, having registered office at Ahmedabad, to furnish bank guarantee for the entire demand made by Bharti Airtel Limited at Santhome, having registered office in Delhi, as per International Telecommunication Cable Landing Stations Access Facilitation Charges and Co-location Charges (Amendment) Regulations, 2018, issued on November 28, 2018.
A division bench of Justices M M Sundresh and RMT Teekaa Raman gave the directive while disposing of a writ petition from Reliance on November 14.
The petition sought to quash the orders of November 7 of Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal in New Delhi and consequently restrain Bharti Airtel from demanding or collecting any charges from Reliance, as Access Facilitation Charges (AFC), Operation and Maintenance Charges (O&MC) or Co-location Charges (CLC) or taking any coercive action in pursuance of the demands, including but not limited to termination of Cable Landing Station- Reference Interconnect Offer (CLS-RIO) Agreements executed between the parties and/or disconnection or denial of access to Cable Landing Station (CLS) and other facilities.
The bench gave the directive to furnish the bank guarantee within four weeks.
The tribunal is at liberty to pass appropriate orders on the same with respect to conciliation and invocation of bank guarantee, at the time of passing the final order.
Parties can complete pleadings within four weeks and the tribunal should endeavour to conclude the proceedings in eight weeks thereafter, without being influenced by the order of this court.
Bharti Airtel should not effect disconnection, pending disposal of the petition before the tribunal, the division bench of Justices M M Sundresh and RMT Teekaa Raman said.