The Supreme Court Thursday admitted Reliance Infocomm's petition challenging the Telecom Dispute Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT)'s order upholding a Rs.1.5 billion penalty imposed on it for allegedly re-routing international calls as local calls.

A bench of judges Ashok Bhan and S.B. Sinha sought the reaction of the government and the notice in this respect was accepted by Additional Solicitor General K.P. Pathak.

Senior counsel Harish Salve, appearing for Reliance Infocomm, said an important question of law was involved in the appeal.

Reliance had contended that call re-routing was a global practice resorted to by all service providers, including MTNL and BSNL.

The department of telecommunications had imposed a penalty of Rs.1.5 billion on Reliance Infocomm for violating its licence conditions. This penalty was upheld by TDAST, which said such re-routing of calls was a breach of the licence agreement.

The appeal by Reliance was directed against TDSAT's order.

Reliance said there had been no violation of any law in call re-routing, as it was a technical procedure adopted by service providers across the world. It asked the apex court to quash the TDSAT order.