Ticking off the Government for being ‘very casual’ in handling the 2G case, the Supreme Court of India on Monday said withholding of even 0.1 per cent of spectrum, licenses for which were cancelled, will not be acceptable.
A bench of justices G S Singhvi and K S Radhakrishanan also directed the Centre to file a fresh affidavit within two days explaining why all the 2G spectrum was not put on auction on 12 Nov.
‘Government is very casual in dealing with the matter,’ the bench said while turning down an affidavit filed by an Under Secretary-level officer on the matter and directed that it must be filed by Secretary of Department of Telecom.
‘This affidavit cannot be accepted. It has been filed by Under Secretary officer. Our earlier order clearly said that affidavit must be filed by Secretary-level officer. This is a deliberate action on the part of DoT,’ the bench said.
‘On earlier occasion the court had unequivocally rejected affidavit filed by an Under Secretary. It is unfortunate that the same mistake has been done again. Needful should be done within two days,’ it said.
The court said that it would hear Centre’s stand on auction but made it clear that withholding of spectrum from being auctioned would not be acceptable.
‘Keep in mind that withholding of spectrum, even 0.1 per cent would not be acceptable,’ the bench said adding that it was never told earlier that the entire 2G spectrum would not be put on auction. At no point of time this court was informed that the auction was only for 800 and 1800 MHz band,’ the bench observed.
It was contended before the court that government has not complied with the apex court’s direction and it has withheld 136 MHz spectrum out of 431 MHz in 1800 band.
The apex court had on 2 Feb cancelled 122 licenses for 2G spectrum and directed the government to allocate the natural resource by auction. The govt had received on 12 Nov bids worth Rs 9,224.75 crore on the opening day of auction for 2G mobile phone spectrum that drew scant interest due to high base price.
EGOM TO MEET IN A WEEK: SIBAL
The Empowered Group of Ministers on telecom, headed by Finance Minister P Chidambaram, will meet within a week in the backdrop of lukewarm response to recently-concluded 2G spectrum auction. ‘We will have meeting of EGoM within a week,’ Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal said.
The auction of spectrum that started on 12 Nov attracted muted response from the market and fetched the government only Rs 9,407 crore out of Rs 28,000 crore which was minimum value of the airwaves put for auction. The auction of CDMA spectrum had failed earlier after bidders pulled out.
On the SC order asking for an explanation on recent spectrum auction, he said: ‘If the court asks (us) to provide explanation, we will provide that explanation.’
‘The CAG , I’m sure, had views in mind when he put out those figures. He must be convinced of that figure. We believe that by taking that figure of presumptive loss, the media sensationalised the whole thing,’ Sibal said.
‘It resulted ultimately through a judgement of a court of cancellation of licences which in turn...destroyed sentiment of the market which in turn lead to the situation that we are in today,’ he added.
A bench of justices G S Singhvi and K S Radhakrishanan also directed the Centre to file a fresh affidavit within two days explaining why all the 2G spectrum was not put on auction on 12 Nov.
‘Government is very casual in dealing with the matter,’ the bench said while turning down an affidavit filed by an Under Secretary-level officer on the matter and directed that it must be filed by Secretary of Department of Telecom.
‘This affidavit cannot be accepted. It has been filed by Under Secretary officer. Our earlier order clearly said that affidavit must be filed by Secretary-level officer. This is a deliberate action on the part of DoT,’ the bench said.
‘On earlier occasion the court had unequivocally rejected affidavit filed by an Under Secretary. It is unfortunate that the same mistake has been done again. Needful should be done within two days,’ it said.
The court said that it would hear Centre’s stand on auction but made it clear that withholding of spectrum from being auctioned would not be acceptable.
‘Keep in mind that withholding of spectrum, even 0.1 per cent would not be acceptable,’ the bench said adding that it was never told earlier that the entire 2G spectrum would not be put on auction. At no point of time this court was informed that the auction was only for 800 and 1800 MHz band,’ the bench observed.
It was contended before the court that government has not complied with the apex court’s direction and it has withheld 136 MHz spectrum out of 431 MHz in 1800 band.
The apex court had on 2 Feb cancelled 122 licenses for 2G spectrum and directed the government to allocate the natural resource by auction. The govt had received on 12 Nov bids worth Rs 9,224.75 crore on the opening day of auction for 2G mobile phone spectrum that drew scant interest due to high base price.
EGOM TO MEET IN A WEEK: SIBAL
The Empowered Group of Ministers on telecom, headed by Finance Minister P Chidambaram, will meet within a week in the backdrop of lukewarm response to recently-concluded 2G spectrum auction. ‘We will have meeting of EGoM within a week,’ Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal said.
The auction of spectrum that started on 12 Nov attracted muted response from the market and fetched the government only Rs 9,407 crore out of Rs 28,000 crore which was minimum value of the airwaves put for auction. The auction of CDMA spectrum had failed earlier after bidders pulled out.
On the SC order asking for an explanation on recent spectrum auction, he said: ‘If the court asks (us) to provide explanation, we will provide that explanation.’
‘The CAG , I’m sure, had views in mind when he put out those figures. He must be convinced of that figure. We believe that by taking that figure of presumptive loss, the media sensationalised the whole thing,’ Sibal said.
‘It resulted ultimately through a judgement of a court of cancellation of licences which in turn...destroyed sentiment of the market which in turn lead to the situation that we are in today,’ he added.