The Centre on Tuesday termed as "premature" the plea by telecom major Vodafone challenging the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's recommendation to impose Rs 1,050-crore penalty on it for not providing interconnectivity to Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd.
Additional Solicitor General Sanjay Jain, appearing for the Centre, argued before Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva that Vodafone's plea was a "complete abuse of process of court" as TRAI had only made a recommendation and the government was yet to form an opinion.
The ASG opposed the maintainability of the petition, saying once the Department of Telecommunications of the Ministry of Communication takes a decision, then it is an appealable order.
He also questioned whether the telecom major had any material with it to show that the government would be influenced by TRAI's recommendation.
The court, thereafter, gave the ministry and TRAI two weeks' time to file their reply on the issue of maintainability of the petition and listed it for hearing on February 6.
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