Vodafone Idea To Shut Down? Supreme Court Dismisses VI, Airtels Pleas Against AGR Dues

Vodafone Idea And Airtel Supreme Court Case: Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel suffered a big setback on Monday because the Supreme Court brushed aside their writ petitions searching for exemption from pastime on Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) dues. A bench led via Justices J.B. Pardiwala and R. Mahadevan rejected the telecom giants’ pleas, describing the petitions as “misconceived.” 

Vodafone Idea Approaches Supreme Court 

Vodafone Idea had approached the Supreme Court previous this month, searching for aid of over Rs 45,000 crore in AGR-related liabilities to verify its survival. Bharti Airtel adopted with a identical plea, soliciting for aid on an “equitable basis.”. The apex courtroom had prior to now additionally refused to grant any aid to the telecom corporate. While the corporate famous that the federal government had transformed a portion of its dues—about Rs 39,000 crore—into fairness, it nonetheless owes just about Rs 1.19 lakh crore in spectrum and AGR-related liabilities.

Bharti Airtel And Bharti Hexacom

Bharti Airtel and Bharti Hexacom additionally moved the Supreme Court searching for a waiver of pastime and consequences on AGR dues amounting to ₹34,745 crore, in response to fairness issues. Earlier, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) had additionally declined to offer to any extent further aid on AGR dues, bringing up the apex courtroom’s 2020 judgment and the federal government’s beef up to Vodafone Idea thru fairness conversion.

Supreme Court Ruling In 2019

The long-standing dispute over the definition and calculation of AGR used to be settled via the Supreme Court in its 2019 ruling. In a 2020 ruling, the courtroom had given telecom operators 10 years to repay a complete of Rs 93,520 crore in AGR-related dues to the federal government. Despite requests from telcos, the DoT’s plea to increase the reimbursement window to 20 years used to be rejected via the courtroom.

Telecom Giant Challenges AGR Calculation

Telecom corporations had additionally challenged the process of AGR calculation, declaring mathematics mistakes, however the Supreme Court brushed aside the ones claims. Vodafone Idea’s healing petition at the subject used to be additionally rejected via the courtroom in September 2024.

In its newest try, Vodafone Idea filed every other petition in April, searching for a waiver of pastime on AGR dues. The courtroom brushed aside the plea on Monday, calling it “shocking” and deeming it “misconceived.” At the time of submitting this file, Vodafone Idea stocks had been down over 9%, buying and selling at Rs 6.70. (With ANI Inputs)