A three judge bench which includes Chief Justice S H Kapadia, K S Radhakrishnan and Swatanter Kumar has directed Reliance Communications and Reliance Telecom to deposit 50% of the increased usage charge demanded by Department of Telecom (DOT)  and to submit a bank guarantee within two weeks. 

"The Operator - Reliance Communications Ltd will deposit fifty per cent of the outstanding principal amount net of interest in the Supreme Court Registry within a period of two weeks," said the bench. It further said, "The balance fifty per cent of disputed outstanding amount net of interest will be secured by way of Bank guarantee of a Nationalised Bank to be given within a period of two weeks”.

RCom and RTel are challenging the order of the sectoral tribunal, TDSAT, which had declined to stay DoT''s raise in the spectrum usage charge.

RCom said in a statement that it was already making payment of the increased spectrum charges under protest. "The Supreme Court has given an interim relief by asking only to pay 50 per cent of the increased charge and for the balance 50 per cent to submit the bank guarantee,". This judgment is exactly the same as what has been passed in case of other operators like Airtel and Vodafone. "There is no additional liability on RCom," the statement said.