SC gives green signal for Vodafone merger subject to payment of Rs. 2000 crore to DoT

Vodafone Mobile Services Limited (Vodafone) has been asked to pay Rs. 2000 crore to the Central government to complete the merger of four entities into it. Vodafone East, Vodafone Cellular, Vodafone South and Vodafone Digilink are the four entities proposing to merge into Vodafone..The matter was heard by a Division Bench comprising Justice JS Khehar and Justice R Banumathi yesterday which asked Vodafone to pay Rs. 2000 crore and go ahead with the merger..The merger had hit a roadblock after the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) had raised a demand of Rs. 6678 crore under various heads including One time Spectrum Charge and Adjusted Gross Revenue for the merger to go through. Vodafone had challenged the DoT’s claim in the Telecom Dispute Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT). It had, vide a letter dated March 4, 2015 agreed to pay Rs. 1773 crore for the merger to go through. The TDSAT had, on October 19, allowed a provisional merger which was challenged by the Central government in Supreme Court..Additional Solicitor General PS Narasimha appeared for the Central government along with Advocate Asha Gopalan Nair. Senior Advocates AM Singhvi and KK Venugopal appeared for Vodafone..Narasimha submitted that the merger guidelines required Vodafone to pay all dues and demands before the merger can be given green signal. KK Venugopal and Singhvi told the Court that many of these dues are disputed and Vodafone has obtained stay in their favour against payment of those..The Court after hearing the arguments proposed that Vodafone pay Rs. 2000 crore to DoT for approving the merger. As an alternate option, the Court asked Vodafone to pay the “conceded” Rs. 1773 crore but after giving details of the challenge to DoT’s claim, reports Economic Times..Vodafone chose the former option as per the report. The challenge to DoT’s claim of Rs. 6673 will now be heard by TDSAT.