Dhaka: The Supreme Court on Tuesday fixed 31 October for hearing the petition seeking stay on BTRC’s decision suspending the spectrum of Citycell, the country’s oldest mobile phone operator, for its failure to pay the outstanding payment of Tk 477.63 crore.

Judge of the Appellate Division’s vacation chamber Hasan Foyez Siddique set the date following a petition by Citycell authorities and sent it to a regular bench, headed by Chief Justice SK Sinha, for hearing on that day, reports UNB.

On Monday, the Citycell authorities filed the petition with the Appellate Division seeking stay on the decision of the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) that suspended the spectrum of Citycell for the non-payment of dues.

Barrister Shafik Ahmed and Advocate AM Amin Uddin led the hearing for Citycell while Attorney General Mahbubey Alam represented the state and Barrister Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh and Barrister Reza-e-Rakib for the BTRC.

On 20 October, the BTRC suspended the spectrum of Citycell as it failed to pay the outstanding payment of Tk 477.63 crore.

On 29 August, the Appellate Division ordered Citycell to pay its Tk 477.51 crore dues to (BTRC) in two installments to continue its operation.

The apex court had asked the mobile phone operator to pay the first slot of Tk 318.42 crore, two-thirds of the total outstanding payment, within 19 October.

As Citycell failed to pay the two-thirds of the total amount within the stipulated time, the BTRC took the decision to suspend the operations of the mobile phone operator as per the law.