Dhaka: The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court (SC) on Sunday asked the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) to reply within afternoon why it has not yet resume the spectrum of telecom operator Citycell.

A four-member HC bench, led by Chief Justice SK Sinha, passed the verbal order in the morning.

The details of the order will be disclosed after the hearing, to be held at about 11:30am, said Citycell’s counsel Mustafizur Rahman.

On Thursday, the Appellate Division asked private telecom operator Citycell to pay Tk 100 crore to the BTRC by 19 November.

The court also asked the BTRC to resume the spectrum of Citycell immediately.

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

The Appellate Division ordered Citycell to pay its Tk 477.51 crore dues to the BTRC in two installments to continue its operation on 29 August.

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.