New Delhi: Union Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal on Friday alleged that public interest litigation (PIL) were being used to settle personal scores while clarifying on a petition filed in the Supreme Court accusing him of waiving off a huge penalty on Reliance Communications.
Sibal claimed that a penalty of Rs 5 crore was imposed on Reliance Communications for interruption of service as per agreement between Universal Service Obligation Fund and the company.
For 13 circles, the fine could have added up to Rs 650 crore. Network18 website FirstPost.com had first exposed the story.
He said that the notice about the imposition Rs 50 crore was issued to Reliance Communications to pressurise the company to restore services.
"The notice for Rs 50 crore was to pressurise the Reliance Telecom.... They got worried," Sibal said, adding finally the services were restored on February 16, this year and the company paid a penalty of Rs 5.5 crore.
He maintained that the penalty was calculated on the basis of duration of disruption of services (7-45 days) as provided in the agreement between USO Fund and RCom.
Sibal also termed as "unfortunate" the allegations that he had over-ruled officials of his ministry, saying the government could not function this way that a minister cannot take a decision because he would be labelled as "dishonest and wanting to favour private parties".
Sibal suggested that the PILs were being misused as they were meant only for serving public interest and "not to settle personal score". He, however, did not elaborate even when asked whether he felt he was deliberately being targeted.
An application was filed in the Supreme Court by Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) alleging that Sibal reduced the penalty from Rs 650 crore to Rs five crore against Anil Ambani-headed RCom for violations in the UASL agreement.
The NGO alleged that a penalty of Rs 50 crore per circle should have been imposed for "violation of the terms and conditions of Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) agreement and UASL agreement by voluntary, unilateral and unauthorised switching-off/closure of services to subscribers from USOF sites without any notice."
"The Rs 5 crore penalty on the ADAG firm was as per the agreement between the USOF and Reliance Telecom. The DoT was nothing to do with the penalty as the company had not violated the rules of license conditions," Sibal said.
He said when the file reached him on February 18, this year, RCom had already restored the services two days prior to that. He said he gave instructions to impose penalty as per the provisions of the agreement and did not himself decide the amount of Rs 5 crore as penalty.
He, however, was evasive when asked on what basis Rs 50 crore was decided as penalty.
(With additional information from PTI)
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