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SC pulls up Centre, warns telecom firms of contempt of court

Managing Directors of telecom companies will be personally responsible and will be held for contempt of court for future newspaper articles

New Delhi: The Supreme Court wednesday pulled up the Centre and telecom companies for doing self-assessment or reassessment of the Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) dues fixed by the apex court in its verdict given on October 24 last year.

The top court, which was also anguished by frequently published newspaper articles on the AGR issue, said all Managing Directors of telecom companies will be personally responsible and will be held for contempt of court for any such future newspaper articles.

A bench of Justices Arun Mishra, S A Nazeer and M R Shah refused to take up the Centre's plea for allowing telecom companies to pay AGR dues in 20 years, saying the application will be taken up after two weeks.

The fresh plea stated that telecom service providers who were liable to make payments have started making payments and the part payment is made arising out of adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues.

The petition said that the Centre is dealing with the telecom service providers and it has found that telcos who are required to make the payments are catering to crores of consumers throughout the country.

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