S. Ravindra Bhat JUDGMENT
S. Ravindra Bhat, J.
1. Leave granted. With the consent of the learned Counsel for the parties, the appeal was heard finally. The Appellant/Union of India (hereafter referred to as "the Union") is aggrieved by a direction of the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (hereafter referred to as "TDSAT" or the "Tribunal") to return ` 104.34 crores lying unadjusted, to the Respondents (collectively hereafter referred to as "RCL/RTL").
2. The facts necessary for this judgment are that the Union had, on 30.01.2013, published a notice inviting bids (hereafter referred to as "NIA 2013"), for the auction of spectrum. Sistema Shyam Teleservices Ltd. (hereafter referred to as "Sistema") was the successful applicant in respect of the 800 MHz band spectrum for eight circles/regions. By orders of the court, a Scheme for Amalgamation under the erstwhile Companies Act, 1956 was approved, by virtue of which Sistema merged with RCL. Resultantly, its assets and liabilities, including the spectrum license it had successfully bid for - to NIA 2013 devolved on RCL. The Union approved this transfer on 20.10.2017.
3. The Union invited bids for auction of further spectrum bandwidth in 2015; the bids of RCL and the second Appellant (hereafter "RTL") were successful in respect of three kinds of spectrum in several regions/circles; licenses were issued to them. In terms of NIA 2013, the third instalment of deferred spectrum charges of ` 281.45 crores fell due from RCL, which could not be paid by it. This led to the encashment on 11.05.2018, of bank guarantees furnished, to the extent of ` 281.45 crores. The total extent of bank guarantee furnished was ` 390.41 crores. Contemporaneously, the deferred spectrum liability under the NIA 2015 @ ` 492.79 crores became payable on 09.04.2018. The Respondents (RCL and RTL) could not pay these charges. Consequently, the Union encashed ` 492.79 crores out of the bank guarantees furnished.
4. RCL and RTL apparently along with several other telecom service providers faced acute economic problems which led to the Union revisiting certain issues and modifying the payment periods/terms towards deferred spectrum charges, in regard to subsisting spectrum licenses. Accordingly, letters containing such modified terms were issued on 19.03.2018. These facts, coupled with the other financial problems faced by the Respondents, leading to their adopting a strategic debt restructuring scheme with their lender banks in accordance with the guidelines issued by the RBI were mentioned by them; Formation of a joint-lenders forum (JLFs) with the objective of realizing dues payable by RCL and RTL, (to the tune of ` 45,000 crores) are cited by the Respondents as reasons for default in fulfilling the commitments under the licenses. It is also stated that these two Respondents eventually decided to exit from the strategic debt restructuring framework and monetize their assets, including the spectrum licenses. These circumstances led the Respondents (RCL and RTL) to approach TDSAT complaining of acute financial crunch as well as interim orders made ........