COAI threatens DoT with law suit for not putting up TTSL spectrum for sale

Industry lobby group the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), which represents India’s GSM service providers, has called on the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to include the spectrum held by Tata Teleservices (TTSL) amongst the frequencies to be auctioned later this year, in line with the Supreme Court’s February ruling. According to the Economic Times, the COAI argued that as TTSL’s spectrum was allocated in January 2008 it was covered by the apex court’s decision to revoke all licences distributed at that time. By failing to include TTSL in the list of revoked licensees, the COAI claimed that: ‘DoT has thereby failed to comply with the direction given by Supreme Court. This amounts to violation of the letter and spirit of the judgement passed by the Supreme Court and would amount to disobedience of the judgement of the Supreme Court.’ The lobby group threatened that the DoT’s action amounted to ‘wilful disobedience of the judgement’ and that it would ‘take appropriate legal action unless DoT confirms…that in compliance with the direction of the SC, it will put the spectrum allocated to TTSL to auction.’