New Delhi, February 03: In a historic verdict, the Supreme Court on Thursday cancelled all 122 2G telecom licences issued during the tenure of former telecom minister A Raja in 2008.
An apex court bench comprising of Justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly held that 122 licences for 2G spectrum were granted in an “arbitrary and unconstitutional manner”.
Imposing a fine of Rs five crore each on three telecom companies, which offloaded their shares after getting the licenses, the court directed regulator Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to make fresh recommendations on allocation of 2G licences.
Asking the government to take steps on the recommendations of TRAI within a month, a bench comprising justices Singhvi and Ganguly said the allocation of spectrum would be done through the policy of auction within four months.
The order came on three separate petitions which alleged scam in the allocation of spectrum licences by Raja in January 2008 during the tenure of UPA-I government, on which the CAG had assumed a presumptive loss of upto Rs 1.76 lakh crores.
The 122 licences were given by Raja for over Rs 9,000 crores, while 3G auctions for a smaller number of licences had fetched the government a sum of Rs 69,000 crores.
Companies which stand to lose their licences include Uninor (joint venture between Unitech and Telenor of Norway), Sistema Shyam Teleservices (joint venture between Shyam and Sistema of Russia), Loop Telecom, DB (joint venture between Swan and Etisalat of UAE), S Tel, Videocon and Idea Cellular.
However, affected companies have been given four months to enter into talks with government and renegotiate spectrum cost based on current market rates.
On the spectrum that would be auctioned, the court said that the proceeds from the sale will go to the public exchequer so as to recover the loss that occurred due to faulty sale of spectrum.
Telecos’ contention rejected
Moreover, the two-member bench of the apex Court also dismissed the contentions of the telecom companies that if the first-cum first-served policy, adopted for grant of the licences, is held illegal then all licences given 2001 onwards should be cancelled.
The bench said neither the grant of licences before 2008 was challenged nor the telecom companies, who got it between 2001 and 2007, were parties in the case.
“The argument of Harish Salve, senior counsel (for a telecom firm), that if the court finds that the exercise undertaken for grant of UAS Licences has resulted in violation of the institutional integrity, then all the licences granted 2001 onwards should be cancelled, does not deserve acceptance because those who have got licence between 2001 and September 24, 2007 are not parties to these petitions and legality of the licences granted to them has not been questioned before this court,” the bench said.
TRAI pulled up for lopsided approach
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court also pulled up the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) for adopting a “lopsided” approach in recommending grant of 2G spectrum at 2001 prices and methodology which suffered from several deficiencies.
“To say the least, the entire approach adopted by TRAI was lopsided and contrary to the decision taken by the Council of Ministers and its recommendations became a handle for the the then Minister of C&IT A Raja and the officers of the DoT who virtually gifted away the important national asset at throw-away prices,” a bench of justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly said.
Trial court to decide on Chidambaram
The SC while refusing to direct the CBI to probe the alleged role of P Chidambaram in the 2G case said that the trial court would decide on probe against the Home Minister.
Disposing of the petition, the court said that its order should no way influence the proceedings before the trial court.
The apex court said that the trial court should decide the matter within two weeks.
Special CBI Judge O P Saini, who is hearing a separate petition to prosecute Chidambaram, has already reserved his order for February 4.
The petioner had contended that Chidambaram as finance minister had a role in fixation of prices of the licenses and in the dilution of shares by the telecom firms to two foreign companies.
No SIT but CVC to keep tab on CBI probe
The court while dismissing the plea for constitution of a Special Investigation Team (SIT), directed the CBI, which is probing the 2G case, to give status report on its investigation to the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC).
The CVC would in turn keep appraising the apex court of the progress in investigations.
–PTI