After Supreme Court rap, the Department of Telecommunications has ordered firms such as Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea to clear dues before Friday midnight.

The DoT, which faced the ire of the Supreme Court for putting on hold recovery of dues from telecom companies, started issuing circle or zone-wise demand notices to firms. The order asked telcos to clear dues by 11.59 pm Friday.

A copy of the order issued to the UP (West) circle.

After the apex court's reprimand, the DoT first cancelled its earlier order which protected defaulting telcos from coercive action.

Bharti Airtel has written to DoT offering to pay Rs 10,000 cr by February 20 and the rest before the next date of hearing in the Supreme Court, which is March 17.

According to a reply filed by the government in the Rajya Sabha on February 06, the top four dues total a whopping Rs 1.3 lakh crore.

Earlier in the day, a three-judge bench of Justice Arun Mishra, Justice S Abdul Nazeer and Justice M R Shah summoned the top executives of the telcos and the DoT to explain why the court should not initiate contempt proceedings against them and government officials.

The court has expressed anguish over the Central government’s order staying the payment of AGR dues despite the SC order. "Should we wind up the Supreme Court now? Is there any law left in the country?" Mishra said.

"We will draw up contempt against everyone," he said.

The Supreme Court on January 17 had dismissed the petitions by the telecom firms to review its October verdict, saying it did not find any "justifiable reason" to entertain them.

The apex court had on October 24 last year upheld the AGR definition formulated by DoT and termed as "frivolous" the nature of objections raised by telecom service providers.

First Published:Feb 14, 2020 6:15 PM IST