Telecommunications and E-commerce Minister Renee Webb was accused of "thumbing her nose" at court proceedings in a row over the sale of TeleBermuda International (TBI).

Ms Webb said she wanted to change the conditions of TBI's licence after its parent company, GlobalNet Commerce, which is in receivership, indicated it wanted to sell it to a foreign entity rather than a consortium with Bermudian interests, said TBI's lawyer Alan Dunch.

TBI obtained a restraining order arguing Ms Webb was acting in excess of her jurisdiction by trying to ensure there must be a minimum Bermudian ownership when the company is sold - believed to be at least 40 percent.

But while Supreme Court proceedings were pending to determine if Ms Webb had authorisation to insist on minimum Bermudian ownership of the company if it was sold, Ms Webb again wrote to TBI asking why she should not alter the terms of the licence, Mr Dunch told the Court of Appeal yesterday.

"The bid by the partial Bermudian consortium was considerably lower than the one put forward by the non-Bermudians and it was indicated the intention was to sell to the non-Bermudian consortium," said Mr. Dunch.

"The Minister, having only months before extended the licence for a further 15 years, on March 1 gave us notice that we had 14 days to make a submission to her as to why she should not further amend the licence, the effect being she would have to give consent to the transfer of shares from GlobeNet to the purchasing consortium.

"I say nothing about the intention behind that, but the intention was expressed that 'I am going to do that and you have 14 days to do so'.

"We set about to establish that she was acting in excess of her jurisdiction because she had no power to insert an amendment of this sort because there had been no previous such condition.

"The Minister entered an appearance and the Minister issued a further, second, letter to say we had eight days to say why she should not do it. All this in the face of extant proceedings.

"She was defying the existence of proceedings, thumbing her nose up and saying 'I don't care that the proceedings are saying I'm acting in excess of my jurisdiction, I'm going to do it anyway'.

"It was astonishing to me as counsel that the Minister would have taken so high handed an approach and asked by the court...the Minister was not prepared to accede to the court's jurisdiction (to decide the issue) before exercising her decision."

But Philip Perinchief for the Attorney General's Chambers argued that Ms Webb was not acting in excess of her jurisdiction as she had amended the terms of TBI's licence before.

And he said TBI had been acting in a "high-handed" manner by not responding to a letter from Ms Webb on March 1 this year asking why she should not amend the licence.

Mr. Dunch, however, pointed out that the company had responded on March 13, telling her they had started proceedings for a declaration that she was acting in excess of jurisdiction.

But on March 28, Ms Webb again wrote to TBI giving notice of intention to amend the licence to include a clause about minimum Bermudian ownership, and giving the company eight days to state why she should not do so.

And on April 5, TBI was granted a stay, restraining Ms Webb from inserting this new condition. The restraining order is still in place and will remain there until the court decides the issue of whether or not the Minister has the jurisdiction to amend the licence in the way she stated she intended to.

The Court of Appeal yesterday turned down Ms Webb's bid to challenge the restraining order obtained by TBI.

Court of Appeal President Sir James Astwood said: "The Minister has the knowledge of the summons and she says, notwithstanding that, you have eight days to respond to me, and if you don't respond, I'll do what I'm going to do? She should stop until the originating summons stops challenging her jurisdiction."