MOSCOW, January 15 - RAPSI. The Supreme Court of India has extended the licenses revoked last year from AFK Sistema subsidiary Sistema Shyam Teleservices Ltd (SSTL) until it hears the case on February 4, PTI news agency reports.

The licenses expire on January 18.

A representative of the Russian holding company AFK Sistema said the court also planned to consider the company's complaint about the license revocation, but it had not yet announced its decision. Sistema hopes that the SSTL licenses will be extended until the next airwave auction, due in March.

In late February 2012, the Indian Supreme Court received an appeal from SSTL to reconsider the court ruling on the revocation of its licenses. The company also asked to suspend the license revocation while the application to review the court's decision was being considered.

Sistema owns 56.68 percent of SSTL shares and has invested millions of dollars in the Indian telecom sector. It believes that revoking the licenses contradicts an agreement which commits India to protect investments rather than seize them.

According to the Indian Supreme Court, the SSTL licenses were granted according to an incorrect procedure and therefore violated the requirements of the Indian Ministry of Communications and Information Technology.

The last airwave auctions were held in November, but most of the wavebands on offer remained unclaimed because the auction participants considered the prices to be too high. SSTL did not take part in those auctions.

Sistema owner Vladimir Yevtushenkov said during President Vladimir Putins visit to India in December that the company hopes to settle SSTL's problems out of court.

Sistema bought 10 percent of Shyam in September 2007, increased the stake to 51 percent in January 2008 and to 73.7 percent in June. In March 2011, the Russian government bought a 17 percent stake in SSTL for 600 million US dollars. Sistema's stake therefore decreased to 57 percent. The Indian partner holds 24 percent in the company.