Telecom Firms caught between AP, Telangana move to Supreme Court

With major stir going on between the states – Telangana and Andhra Pradesh over phone-tapping allegations, the telecom operators have faced the brunt of it which has led them to the Supreme Court. The telecom operators - Bharti, Reliance and Idea who were caught between the states Bharti, Reliance and Idea have approached the court for protection.

The dispute erupted when a channel partially owned by Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s family aired an audiotape last month of an alleged conversation between AP Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu and a lawmaker. KCR’s government alleged that Mr Naidu was trying to make a deal with lawmaker Elvis Stephenson for his support to TDP candidate in Telangana legislative council polls.

However, Chandrababu claimed that the tape was doctored and his phone was tapped. The AP Chief Minister further alleged that KCR had sanctioned the tapping of his phones due to which the AP government demanded telecom operators to hand over records of phone-tapping in Telangana. But the Telangana government directed the companies not to comply with the demands.

The lawyers of the telecom firms in the Court stated that if they don’t hand over the records to the AP government, they will be penalized but if they do, Telangana government will punish them. The Telecom operators petition will be heard on Thursday.