The country’s telecom tribunal, TDSAT has declined an interim relief to incumbent operators, who had demanded an interim relief to be provided over the CAG’s move to conduct fresh audit of such operators accounting books through independent auditors.

The CAG has asked for independent audits of companies, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Tata Teleservices and BSNL.

The government has already conducted independent audits of these operators. The independent audits were necessitated after it was observed that some operators were manipulating revenues to benefit out of the licence fee payments resulting in loss to government exchequer.

The TDSAT said, "The power of CAG is an independent one flowing from a statutory rule and not out of a contract qua contract."

As per the TRAI Act, 2002, the accounts of private operators can be audited by CAG and the same was also incorporated in the licences of these players.