Supreme Court: Refusing to change the definition of gross revenue as defined in clause 19.1 of the licence agreement granted by the Government of India to the Telecom Service Providers, the 3-judge bench of Arun Mishra, SA Nazeer and MR Shah, JJ has said,
“The definition of revenue has been taken in a broad, comprehensive, and inclusive manner to pose fewer problems of interpretation, and exclusion of certain items was avoided.”
The Court agreed that to a certain extent, it cannot be disputed that to have clarity, uniformity, and definitiveness; the accounting standards lay down guidelines with respect to financial terms. It, however, said that when the financial terms in the agreement are clear in the form of definition of gross revenue governed by Clause 19.1 of the agreement, the definition of Accounting Standard9 cannot supersede it which is a general one.
“The definition in agreement is unambiguous, clear, and beyond the pale of doubt, and there is no confusion in the definition of gross revenue, which is the basis for realisation of the licence fee. Licensees have made a futile attempt to wriggle out of the definition in an indirect method, which was rejected directly in the decision of 2011 between the parties and it was held that these very heads form part of gross revenue.”
The Court further noticed that the parties had agreed to various inclusions in the agreement and have willingly switched over to revenue sharing regime under the National Telecom Policy, 1999. TSPs agreed to interpretation and accepted it as held by this Court in 2011 judgment.
“The deliberations were held with the licensees, experts, and then finally migration package, revenue sharing regime is being consented to, was worked out in which the definition of adjusted gross revenue as a part of the financial condition of the licence is mentioned.”
Going through the chequered history on the case, the Court noticed:
- The demand was raised for the first time in the year 2003 despite the fact that the definition of gross revenue was clear. Licensees were aware that these items concerning which they have raised the dispute were included in the definition of gross revenue, as such, they had initially questioned inclusion on the basis of the validity of the definition of gross revenue. The challenge was found to be sans any basis by this Court.
- The objections raised concerning the validity of the gross revenue, were wholly unsustainable and on the face of it, were liable to be rejected, and came to be rejected finally and conclusively by this Court in the year 2011.
- After that, again the objections have been repeated to exclude those very revenue items which were held to be included once over an effort has been made to get rid of the definition of gross revenue. The objections which have been raised pertained to the definition of gross revenue for which the court held they are part of revenue.
“Now, relying upon AS9 standards, an attempt has been made by an indirect method for excluding items, which are expressly included in the definition of gross revenue. Objections are too tenuous, and, as a matter of fact, there was no scope to raise such objections in 2003 itself.”
In the over 150 pages long verdict, the Court has discussed at length the various revenue heads not being revenue and has held that they all fall within the purview of gross revenue.
[Union of India v. Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India, 2019 SCC OnLine SC 1393, decided on 24.10.2019]