Khaitan & Co Represented Pioneer Elabs Limited Before The Telecom Dispute Settlement Appellate Tribunal.

Khaitan & Co represented Pioneer Elabs Limited before the Telecom Dispute Settlement Appellate Tribunal

The leading law firm in India, Khaitan & Co advised and represented Pioneer Elabs Limited (“Pioneer”) before the Telecom Dispute Settlement Appellate Tribunal (“TDSAT”) challenging a Demand Notice dated 30 September 2025 issued by the Department of Telecommunication (“DOT”). Vide the Demand Notice, DOT called upon Pioneer to pay INR 13,62,34,165 as License Fees for FY 2023-2024 and threatened coercive action against Pioneer in case of failure to pay the above amount.

During the hearing, the Khaitan & Co team submitted that the Demand Notice was issued contrary to the terms of the License Agreement and the well-settled position of law established by TDSAT, which holds that revenue generated from pure internet services cannot be included in Aggregate Gross Revenue for the purpose of calculating the License Fee.

The TDSAT, after considering the submissions, passed an interim order staying the operation and implementation of the Demand Notice and directed DOT not to initiate any coercive action against Pioneer.

The matter was led by Jeevan Ballav Panda (Partner), with support from Dhriti Mehta (Senior Associate) and Saurabh Samraat (Associate), and was argued by Gopal Jain (Senior Advocate).

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