Setback to telecom companies from Supreme Court, curative petition related to error in AGR calculation dismissed

The Supreme Court has dismissed petitions from many telecom companies, including Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel, requesting that it correct alleged errors in Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR).

A bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice Sanjiv Khanna, and Justice BR Gavai also dismissed the telecom companies' petitions. The petition demanded that the curative petitions be listed for hearing in open court.

The curative petition is the final stop in the Supreme Court; there is no legal way to appeal from there. It is usually considered in-camera unless a prima facie case is presented for reconsideration of the decision.

The bench pronounced the order on August 30, which was made public on Thursday. The court said, "The application to list the curative petitions in open court is dismissed. We have perused the curative petitions and the documents concerned. We believe that no case is made out within the parameters stated in the decision of this court in Rupa Ashok Hurra vs Ashok Hurra. The curative petitions are dismissed.''

The apex court had on October 9 last year considered the arguments of some telecom companies. These included a request to list their petitions on the Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) dues issue. The court had earlier in July 2021 dismissed a petition seeking rectification of errors in the demand for AGR dues. The telecom companies had approached the apex court claiming that there were several errors in fixing the AGR dues, which totalled more than Rs 1 lakh crore.