The government on Thursday contested Idea Cellular's allegation that it was not given a chance to present its side on imposition of Rs 50 crore penalty for suppressing customer database in one of the circles.

Counsel appearing for DoT submitted before the telecom tribunal TDSAT that three letters were written to Idea from June 8-18 this year, asking it to give the correct position over the mismatch with actual number of subscribers database.

"We have complied with the principles of natural justice.

We had directed Idea to explain the reasons over the mismatch along with the sufficient documents... sent a reminder also.

So far no reply has been received by us," said DoT's counsel Manish Dhir.

She said further that the Department of Telecom (DoT) finally asked Idea to provide the data by the evening of July 16, failing which it would attract penalty.

"There was a complete silence. What DoT was supposed to do," she said, adding that the licence conditions were not complied with by Idea and it was a security threat.

The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal has reserved its order after concluding its hearing.

Yesterday, Idea had contended that DoT passed the order without even giving a mandatory notice and a chance to clarify its position over the allegations of suppressing customer database.

It had said that there wasn't even an enquiry by any security agency in this issue, in case there was a security breach as alleged by the DoT.

While checking the networks of Idea in the Andhra Pradesh DoT found that there was suppression of actual customer database and slapped Rs 50 crore penalty on it.

The number of pre-paid customers, who were not reported in the pre-paid customers database but were active in the month of April 2010 stood at 23,71,662 and 5,81,082 in May 2010.

As per the Telecom Enforcement and Resource Monitoring (TERM), vigilance cell of DoT, the company has not only violated the licence conditions and various instructions issued by DoT in respect of verification and re-verification of existing subscribers, but also poses a threat to the security of the nation.