India’s telecoms authorities were awarded an “ex-parte stay” on the previously-approved merger of operators Idea Cellular and Spice, a move which was branded “duplicity and muscle-flexing” by Idea, according to a report in the country’s Economic Times. The issue is related to the combined businesses having overlapping licences in a number of service areas, in violation of the terms and conditions of issue. Under Indian regulations, ownership of more than 10 percent of two licensees in any region is prohibited. Apparently, Idea is arguing that it had offered to surrender the licences without calling for any compensation, while the regulator had suggested an alternative path which would have led to the same end result. However, the authorities then acted with what was described as “incoherence,” leading to the current dispute.

Idea said that the delays in clearing the necessary licence amendments has “harmed Idea and consumer interest but crucially it has caused, and continues to cause, loss of crores of revenue to the exchequer every passing week.” According to Business Standard, the current court decision was made without Idea being given the opportunity to present its arguments – by the same court which previously approved the merger. It was said that in the interim, the regulator withheld 3G spectrum allocated to Idea in some regions – delaying the company’s rollout of new services. According to earlier reports, there had been calls for all overlapping licences of Idea and Spice to be cancelled, due to the fact that the companies had violated a “lock-in period clause” – prohibiting a merger during the three years after the effective date of a licence. Idea has also been issued a cancellation notice for the Punjab circle, after failing to meet 2G rollout deadlines.