The court fixed January 24, 2000 as the next date for hearing on the public interest litigation challenging the new telecom policy (NTP) 99. A division bench comprising chief justice SN Variava and justice SK Mahajan also took note of the President's address to the nation which had reference to empowering the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) for pushing ahead with telecom reforms.

The court also observed that if there was any reduction in rentals for cellular subscribers, it should be passed on to consumers as part of the telecom revenue sharing package. However, solicitor general Harish Salve said that issue of fixing rentals has to be dealt with by the TRAI. A separate petition which seeks lowering of rentals and blocking of the calling party pays (CPP) regime is pending before the same bench and will come up for hearing on December 15.

The court was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Delhi Science Forum (DSF), a non-governmental organisation, which called for a debate in Parliament before the NTP was allowed to come into effect. Counsel for DSF, Indira Jaisingh also informed the court that some private operators had defaulted on paying dues to the DoT. Salve informed the court that all companies had cleared outstanding dues, as desired by the court.

Salve also said that Parliament was unlikely to take up the NTP 99 for discussion.