Supreme Court to hear Bharti telecom plea on 3G roaming on Monday

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday rejected a plea by Bharti telecom to immediately hear its appeal against the High Court order yesterday preventing it from providing 3G services in seven circles.


The HC had yesterday on a plea by Reliance Communications lifted a stay which allowed Bharti to operate 3G roaming pacts. The order was to come into effect in three days. This order is expected to hit subscribers in seven circles.

These are Haryana, Kolkata, UP East, Maharashtra, Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, MP and Chhattisgarh.

A Supreme Court bench, headed justice R M Lodha, said that it would hear the matter on Monday. Bharti lawyer A M Singhvi claimed that the HC order would affect millions of subscribers.

He also said that the HC could not have vacated the stay at the instance of reliance communication.

Bharti had signed 3G roaming pacts with Idea and Vodafone and was providing these services on a pan India basis.

Reliance had claimed that this was hurting its business interests in these circles. The DOT had initially asked Bharti to stop these services and asked it to pay a fine of Rs 350 crore.

Bharti had gone to the HC and got a stay which was vacated at R Com's instance yesterday.