Supreme Court termed the petitions “misconceived”
The Supreme Court on Monday (May 19, 2025) rejected pleas by telecom majors Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and Tata Teleservices for relief in the payments of their adjusted gross revenue (AGR) liabilities.
The petitions were described as “misconceived” by a bench of Justices J.B. Pardiwala and R. Mahadevan.
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The telcos had requested relief in order to pay their penalty, interest on the penalty, and interest on the dues. They said they were in dire financial straits as a result of numerous court decisions on AGR over the years, and they invoked the Supreme Court’s sense of equity.
The companies requested a waiver of liabilities exceeding ₹40,000 crore related to AGR, citing Article 14 of the Constitution, which guarantees the fundamental right to equality. They contended that such a waiver was essential to provide all players with a fair and level playing field, emphasizing that it was crucial for maintaining the stability of the telecom sector.
In September of the previous year, the Supreme Court rejected curative petitions filed by telecom service providers challenging its October 2019 judgment. That ruling had upheld the Department of Telecommunications’ (DoT) decision to recover Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) dues amounting to around ₹92,000 crore from the telecom companies.
The 2019 verdict stated that the telecom industry had long benefited from the government’s liberal revenue-sharing payment model. Under this system, operators were required to pay a licensing fee and spectrum usage charge, both calculated as a percentage of their AGR. The legal dispute over the definition and computation of AGR between private telecom operators and the government had persisted for over two decades.
According to the Supreme Court’s 153-page judgment, the sector had significantly profited from the regime, as reflected in the gross revenue trends from 2004 to 2015. Yet, despite these financial gains, telecom providers sought to avoid paying licensing fees to the public exchequer based on the agreed AGR terms.
The court dismissed the TSPs’ challenges to the government’s AGR calculations, affirming that gross revenue should include all forms of income—such as installation charges, late fees, handset sales, interest, dividends, value-added services, interconnection and roaming charges, and any miscellaneous earnings—without deductions for associated expenses.
Following the rejection of their review petitions, telecom operators filed curative petitions, claiming errors in AGR computation. However, a Supreme Court order in July 2020 clarified that attempts to “correct” computational errors were merely disguised efforts to re-evaluate AGR liabilities—a process the Court had explicitly barred.
The order further emphasized that no telecom company could contest the AGR dues determined by the Union of India, nor could there be any reassessment of those amounts.
In a subsequent ruling in September 2020, the apex court directed telecom companies to begin repaying their AGR dues in annual instalments of 10%, starting from April 1, 2021, and continuing through to March 31, 2031.
