The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to consider the plea of Vodafone Idea Limited (Vi) seeking the urgent listing of its curative petition challenging the apex court’s September 2019 judgment directing telecom companies to cough up about ₹1.47 lakh crore of arrears due to the Centre towards adjusted gross revenue (ADR).

Vi’s plea sought correction of alleged errors in determining adjusted gross revenue (AGR).

Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud sitting along with Justice J.B. Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra gave the assurance to senior advocate Harish Salve who made the request.

Salve informed the bench that the curative petition had been filed in September last year and the company was keen on a final verdict.

“I will look into it…” the CJI told the senior advocate.

On September 1, 2021, the apex court had allowed the telecom operators to pay the AGR dues totaling ₹1.47 lakh cr staggered over 10 years, instead of in one go, as was directed by it in an earlier October 2019 order.

The September 1 judgment had come as a huge relief to telcos which had sought recall of the October 2019 order of the apex court directing it to pay the dues in one go.

The telco had pleaded it would lead to their bankruptcy and had sought staggered payment over 20-30 years.

The Centre, while citing possible massive disruption in telecom services, had urged the apex court to grant a 20-year period for the payment of dues. But the court gave the telcos 10 years.

In July 2021, the Supreme Court dismissed a plea seeking correction of errors in the demand of AGR dues.

The telecom companies had moved the top court claiming there were several errors in arriving at the AGR dues.