The Supreme Court has rejected Vodafone India’s plea to extend the validity of the operator’s licences in the Maharashtra, Gujarat, Haryana, Kerala, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh (East) circles. The operator’s licences in the seven circles will expire in December 2015.

Vodafone had also requested the apex court to abstain DoT from selling the frequency airwaves in the 900 MHz band in these circles in the upcoming auction in February 2015. However, the court has rejected Vodafone’s request to put a stay.

In this regard, the court has stated that since the auction is a process and due only in February 2015, there would not be much progress expected in the process of auctioning till the next hearing date of the litigation. Therefore, any stay on the auction process is not required.