The Supreme Court of India (SC) has adjourned the one-time spectrum charge (OTSC) case for the telcos. A two-judge bench has said that the hearing for the OTSC case has been adjourned until November 17, 2021. The SC has adjourned the case “without expressing anything”, reports ET Telecom. This is because the government had backed off a little by saying that it wants to reconsider its appeal against a telecom tribunal ruling. The order from the SC came on Tuesday; however, the order was only uploaded a little later on the website of the apex court.
Tuesday’s Move from Government Shows Intent to Help the Sector
The government’s move of reconsidering the appeal shows its intent to help the telecom operators and the telecom sector. It is a healthy decision for the sector and one which will help in reducing the litigation. As per several reports online, the government is planning to help the telecom sector by reducing litigation. This is because litigation and court cases not only wastes the time of everyone involved but also keeps making the lawyers rich without having any positive impact on the concerned parties. The reduced litigation will become a part of the upcoming reforms. The telecom sector has received huge help from the government in the last month. Firstly, the relief measures were announced. Now the government has said that it will be reducing the bank guarantees (BGs) for the telcos by 80%, which will help in improving the cash flow. The government has also opened foreign direct investment (FDI) routes for the sector. All of this will help India become a richer economy since the telecom sector is the backbone of digital India. The telecom operators are surely going to have a ball with 5G since they will have much better cashflows to invest money into the 5G spectrum, new technologies, research & development (R&D), and more.
