In a major setback to telecom operators, the Supreme Court has directed "Bharti Airtel" and "Vodafone-Idea", to pay Rs.1.47-lakh crore in past statutory dues of adjusted gross revenue (AGR) by January 23. Apart from these two companies, about 15 companies in the telecom business need to pay to the government, towards licence fees and spectrum usage charges (SUC) calculated on the basis of AGR. The above directions were given by a bench comprising Justices Arun Mishra, S.Abdul Nazeer and M.R.Shah, while dismissing review petitions filed by these companies challenging SC's earlier order on Thursday. Holding that interest and penalty have rightly been levied on the telecom companies, SC specified that there should not be any further litigation on the matter. The telecom companies had sought an open court hearing on their review petition, but the SC decided to stick to its convention of doing an in-chamber hearing.