The Supreme Court has dismissed a PIL seeking cancellation of the Centre’s decision of September 15, 2021, to grant relief to the stressed telecom sector from paying statutory dues, saying these are all matters of policy and decision-making is based on experts’ opinion.

In a breather to telecom service providers struggling to pay Rs 93,520 crore of Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) related dues, the top court on September 1, 2020, gave them 10 years to clear their outstanding amount to the government, PTI reported from New Delhi.

A bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan said that no doubt, the apex court by its judgment had issued certain directions about the telecom sector but in the backdrop of the COVID-19 challenges, with a huge surge in data consumption, online education, work from home, etc., reform measures were found necessary to boost the proliferation and penetration of broadband and telecom connectivity.

“In our view, these are all matters of policy and decision-making which is based on experts’ opinion and emerging situations and exigencies, to be made in the interest of the welfare of the people of India having serious technical and financial implications and, therefore, have to be in the public interest.

“Hence, we do not think such Cabinet decisions could be lightly interfered with by a Court of law in the absence of there being any particulars or materials brought to the notice of the Court assailing the Cabinet decisions, as being unconstitutional or arbitrary in nature or contrary to law,” the bench said.

Contending that the writ petition filed by petitioner Anshul Gupta was without merit, the top court said any interference at this stage would not only create uncertainty in the implementation of the policy but also jeopardize the policy itself.