JUDGMENT

A. K. Patnaik, J.

Civil Appeal Nos. 5059 of 2007, 179-180 of 2008, 311-314, 317-318 of 2008, 363 of 2008, 2065 of 2008, 1229-1230 of 2008 and 3868 of 2009:

These are appeals under Section 18 of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Act, 1997 (for short “the TRAI Act”) against the common judgment and order dated 30.08.2007 of the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal, New Delhi (for short “the Tribunal”) in Petition No. 7 of 2003.

2. The relevant facts very briefly are that with the introduction of the National Telecom Policy, 1994 liberalizing the Telecom Sector, telecom licenses were issued to different service providers. The licenses granted to the service providers stipulated a fixed license fee, which was payable by the service providers every year. During the period 1994 to 1999, the licensees defaulted in payment of license fee and made a representation to the Government of India, Ministry of Telecommunications for relief against the high license fee for the survival of the telecom industry. The Government of India considered the representations and after a number of deliberations with the licensees offered a new package, known as the “National Tele