The Supreme Court has asked the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to respond to the plea of Reliance Telecom which seeks extension of its licences by 10 years in seven circles. This comes after DoT had rejected the firm's application for extension on February 2, 2015. RTL had sought extension of its licence for Assam, North East, West Bengal, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Himachal Pradesh circles by another 10 years.

The Supreme Court had earlier reserved its verdict on similar petitions filed by Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular, Vodafone Mobile Services and Loop Mobile India who had also sought extension of their 20-year spectrum licences by another 10 years. The telecom operators had challenged the government's decision to reject their applications for extension of their licences and auction the spectrum surrendered by them. They had argued that the terms and conditions of their 20-year licences state that they were extendable by another 10 years, while the government had argued that the matter was at its discretion.

The operators had earlier sought a stay on auction, stating that their spectrum, for which the 20-year licence has expired, should not be put on the block. However, on March 23, 2015 the apex court had rejected the plea to stay the spectrum auction but agreed to hear the case expeditiously. Meanwhile, it ordered that the companies to participate in the auction without prejudice to the rights they claim on licence extension.