Online BusinessSC to hear Centre's plea on spectrum row
The Supreme Court today agreed to examine on December 15 the Centre"s Special Leave Petition (SLP) challenging the Delhi High Court"s order which held as arbitrary allocation of 2G spectrum to certain telecom operators by Telecommunication Ministry headed by A Raja.
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The apex court agreed to take up the matter for hearing after Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam mentioned the matter before a bench of Chief Justices K G Balakrishnan, Justices B Sudershan Reddy and P Sathasivam.
In its SLP, the Centre has urged the apex court to stay the Delhi High Court order which had held the Centre"s decision arbitary and directed it to consider the application of one of the aggrieved Chennai-based C Sivasankaram–led S Tel company which alleged favouritsm by the department.
The issue relates to alleged advancing of the cut-off date by the department to favour certain telecom operators and a Division Bench of Delhi High Court headed by Chief Justice A P Shah had held there was no "rationale" in DoT"s decision to advance the deadline from October 1, 2007, to September 25, 2007.
S Tel had approached Delhi High Court challenging DoT"s decision to advance the cut-off date due to which it did not get licences in 16 circles.
The DoT had filed the SLP in the apex court claiming that all rules and regulations were followed while allocating licences for 2G spectrum to new mobile operators.
Telecom Minister A Raja has come under severe criticism for his decision to advance the cut-off date to allegedly favour only a handful of companies.
Companies, including Unitech, Swan Telecom, Loop, Datacom, Shyam-Sistema and S Tel among others were given licences in January 2008 followed by 2G spectrum at a cost of Rs 1,658 crore for pan-India operations.
The DoT has stood its ground that no wrongdoing has been and the decision was taken keeping in mind the availability of spectrum.
However, the high court in its judgement has said, "The government would have to justify its decision to revise the cut-off date already fixed after the applications have been received from persons acting on the basis of earlier cut-off date."