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S.B. SINHA, J :

1. The core question involved in this appeal is the effect of the application of internal circulars issued by the Department of Telecommunications (DOT) in the contracts entered into by and between the parties hereto in respect of as regards inter-connection links provided by it.

2. Civil Appeal Nos. 6341-6342 of 2003, 1 of 2004, 537 of 2004 and 2015 of 2004 involve the question of payment of charges. Civil Appeal No. 6375 of 2003 involves the question as to the effect of pre-mature surrender of fifteen leased circuits of 2 MBPS which had been obtained by BPL from DOT during the period January 1997 to June 1998. Civil Appeal No. 3448 of 2006 involves a dispute in relation to minimum guarantee period for 2 MBPS leaded lines.

It was opined that they fall in the category of Value Added Service. An appeal was preferred thereagainst before the Tribunal which has been allowed, opining :

"After going through the pleadings and the documents produced we have no doubts in our mind that the Respondents do not have much of a case. Admittedly under the terms and conditions of the licences held by them the Appellants are under an obligation to pay for the resources admitted as per the rates fixed by the Respondents. However, in the absence of a specific contract drawn up between both the parties to lay down specifically the resources to be obtained and the precise charges to be paid by them, one has to rely upon knowledge as may be available in public domain and on documents exchanged between the parties, viz., requests for making available certain resources and the demand notes subsequently raised by the provider of resources. It is an admitted fact, and it has not been contested by the Respondents, that the documents relied upon for charging double the rental were internal circulars which were not gazetted and hence not in public domain. The Commercial Information on Leased Circuits, which was a published documents of Dot made available to all the allottees of leased circuits and hence very much in public domain, did not contain any provision under which E-Mail Service Providers were to be charged double the normal rent. Even if it is assumed that the Appellants were aware of a particular circular issued in 1993 it cannot be stretched to argue that they were aware of all the internal circulars of DoT on this subject. We have verified from copies of the demand notes raised by the Respondents in response to the requests received from the Appellants that the initial demands were in conformity with the rates and tariff as indicated in the brochure "Commercial Information on Leased Circuits"."

(ii) "An appraisal of the averments and arguments preferred by both the parties does not support the contention of the Respondents that the Petitioners were fully aware of the internal circulars and orders of DoT regarding the manner of calculation of rental for leased circuits under the Rent and Guarantee Scheme."

(iii) "The Telecommunication Manual and various other related office circulars and orders are basically for internal and official use and unless the relevant contents thereof are specifically made known to parties through agreements and/or contracts it cannot be presumed that these are generally known to them. We have no evidence on record to indicate that the Respondent had informed the Petitioners in categorical terms that in terms of the departmental rules and regulations in force, the basis of calculation of annual rentals on R&G basis would be either capital cost or flat rate, whichever is higher."

33. Furthermore, what would be the effect of such a mistake must be determined having regard to the provisions of the Contract Act.

34. It is not a case where the contract is sought to be terminated on the ground of a mistake. Only a higher rate is sought to be enforced on the basis of internal circulars.

35. We have noticed hereinbefore the effect of an internal circular. There is no presumption about their correctness. Presumption of correctness of documents is provided for in Sections 81 and 84 of the Indian Evidence Act. Even the contents of a newspaper, as envisaged under Section 81 of the Indian Evidence Act, would not be presumed to be correct.