Gross Consequences

The Hindu Newsletter - Gross Consequences Friday 14, February 2020 [alt_text]( The Evening Wrap Welcome to The Evening Wrap, your guide to the day’s major news developments with concise analysis from The Hindu. To get it in your inbox every evening click here. Gross Consequences The Supreme Court on Friday issued contempt notices against companies, including telecom majors Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea, for not paying a single penny in Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) dues totalling [₹1.47 lakh crore.]( The apex court, in October 2019, had directed the companies to pay the amount within three months. The court also initiated contempt proceedings against an officer of the Department of Telecom (DoT) for issuing an internal letter barring authorities from taking “coercive action” even if the companies failed to comply with the SC judgment. The Court said this amounted to literally “staying a Supreme Court judgement”. By all accounts, today’s hearing was an extremely fractious one, with Justice Arun Mishra, the head of the three-judge bench, remarking at one point that “there is no law left in this country”. “This is pure contempt. A 100% contempt! If your desk officer does not withdraw this letter within the next one hour or 30 minutes, he will go to jail today itself,” Justice Mishra told the solicitor general representing the DoT. Within a few hours, the DoT swiftly [withdrew that order](. For good measure, it has also ordered firms such as Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea to clear the dues before Friday midnight. If you’re wondering how companies as big and influential as Airtel and Vodafone could end up in such a soup, then it’s a good time to brush up on AGR. Back in November, we ran a detailed [explainer]( on why the telecom companies needed to pay these large amounts. We also did a podcast on why it was a moment of reckoning for the telecom sector. Listen to that [here](. It remains to be seen now how the payment of the AGR dues will affect these companies. Vodafone had urged the court to let it submit an application before the DoT for drawing up a schedule for payment, while Airtel similarly said it would take time to “reconcile” with the calculations. The next hearing of the case is on March 17. Vodafone, which has to pay over ₹44,000 crore, the highest amount due from any one company, saw its stock price plummet, going down 16.67 percent to ₹3.75 around 3 pm. In Brief: The Supreme Court asked the Jammu and Kashmir government to respond to a petition filed by Sara Abdullah Pilot against the detention of her brother and former former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah under the Public Safety Act. The Court listed the case for hearing on March 2, ignoring pleas to list it for an urgent hearing next week. The court insisted that since the petition had been filed late, and therefore it could wait for another 15 days (till March 2) for a hearing. The conventional judicial practice is for habeas corpus petitions to be treated with urgency, and to be heard immediately. A third Indian crew member on board a cruise ship off the Japanese coast has tested positive for the novel coronavirus, the Indian Embassy in Japan said on Friday. Authorities have confirmed that 218 people have been infected with the deadly virus on the quarantined ship. The Uttar Pradesh government has slapped the National Security Act (NSA) on [Gorakhpur doctor Kafeel KhanÂ](for allegedly making inflammatory and provocative comments at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) last month. The FIR filed against him on December 13 said that he had provoked the religious sentiments of Muslim students while giving a speech on the Citizenship (Amendment) Act to an audience of 600 on December 12. In a surprising move, Justice Satyaranjan C Dharmadhikari of the Bombay High Court, the second most senior judge of the court, told an advocate appearing before him on Friday that he had demitted his office, and that he had resigned. He was in line to succeed Chief Justice Pradeep Nandrajog. That's it for this edition of the Evening Wrap. We'll see you on Monday!  You are receiving this email because you are a user of [thehindu.com]( If you do not wish to receive any such emails, [unsubscribe here.](mailto:rm-0b4bpkehbf2f90kauhqqkhbysa8hkqf@newsalert.thehindu.com?subject=Unsubscribe&body=You will be unsubscribed from our mailing list.) To ensure you continue to receive emails from The Hindu in your inbox, please add newsletters.th@newsalert.thehindu.com to your contact. If you can't see the mailer, please [click here.]( Group Sites [The Hindu]( | [இந்து தமிழ் திசை]( | [Business Line]( | [BL on Campus]( | [Sportstar]( | [Frontline]( | [The Hindu Centre]( | [Images]( | [roofandfloor]( | [Classifieds]( Copyright @ 2019, THG PUBLISHING PVT LTD. [About Us]( | [Contact Us]( | [Subscription](