Bharti Airtel's plea against the Centre's demand that it pay the AGR dues of Videocon, will be heard by the Supreme Court tomorrow. The firm, which is India's biggest mobile carrier, has a spectrum agreement with Videocon, so the Department of Telecommunications wants Airtel to pay Videocon's dues.

Airtel entered a Rs 4,428 crore deal to buy Videocon Telecommunications' spectrum in six circles -- Bihar, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh (East), UP (West) and Gujarat -- in March 2016.

Videocon owes the government Rs 1376 crore.

Airtel, however, declined to pay, saying it could not be held responsible for Vodafone's past dues.

The Telecom Department then went to court. In April this year, the government told Supreme Court that it had raised the demand in compliance with an earlier order of the top court but received a negative response from Airtel.

During a hearing in September 2020, the top court had said that according to spectrum trading guidelines, AGR dues need to be met before trading of licenses and if the seller could not pay, the buyer will have to step up.

Reports said after Airtel's refusal, the telecom department was also taking legal views on encashing Airtel's bank guarantee to raise the dues of Videocon.

Last year, the Supreme Court had refused to stop the government from taking coercive action against telcos to raise AGR dues.