The Supreme Court on Friday provided major relief to telecom companies by ordering the government to refund over Rs 400 crore that it had taken as penalty from the former for not meeting roll out obligations.

Among the firms affected were Unitech, Aircel and Videocon.The DoT had imposed penalty on the operators, which were alloted spectrum in 2008, for delay in setting up infrastructure to commence services within stipulated time.

The penalty was challenged by the operators - Unitech Wireless ( Uninor), Videocon Telecom, Aircel, Dishnet Wireless and Sistema Shyam Teleservices before TDSAT.