The Delhi High Court on Tuesday asked the operators to submit their account books to the country’s apex auditor, CAG.

The CAG had asked for the accounting books of incumbent telecom operators to be audited to check if the operators resorted to under reporting of revenues to benefit from the payment made to government towards annual licence fees and spectrum fees.

"We direct that without prejudice to the rights and contentions of the parties, the petitioners (telcos) will make available the revenue sharing details/documents to the CAG for auditing," the Delhi HC bench said in an interim order.

Operators had pointed out that the DoT has already conducted an independent audit and hence there was no need for CAG to conduct another audit. They had also reasoned that private players do not fall under the domain of CAG. On this the bench said, in our considered view, prima facie the interest of the government is the revenue generated under the licence agreement."

The court, however, also said the CAG will not ask for any further document except the details relating to revenue sharing. "No further material would be asked from petitioners except those concerning the revenue sharing arrangements," the court said.

The Delhi High Court however directed the CAG not to disclose the information given by the telcos in the public domain or to any third-party. "Since this information is being directed to be disclosed without prejudice to the rights and contentions of the petitioners, the said information shall not fall into the public domain and will not be disclosed to any third party," the court said.