2G Case: SC cancels 122 licences
Gujaratglobal News Network, New Delhi
Hearing on the 2G spectrum allocation case, the Supreme Court on Thursday cancelled the 122 2G spectrum licences granted by former telecom minister A. Raja. The Supreme Court cancelled the licences on the ground that they were allotted in an “arbitrary and unconstitutional” manner.
The court also asked TRAI to make fresh recommendation for the allocation of spectrum and asked the government to take steps on it in a period of one month. The court ordered that the allocation of spectrum should be done through auction within four months. Further the court imposed a fine of Rs five crore each on the three companies guilty of offloading their shares after getting the licences.
A bench comprising justices G S Singhvi and A K was hearing a petition filed by NGO CPIL and Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy alleging a scam in the allocation of licences of 2G spectrum. The Supreme Court said the current licences will remain in place for four months, in which time the government should decide fresh norms for issuing licences.
Companies which will be adversely affected by the SC ruling include Loop Telecom, Sistema Shyam (joint venture between Shyam and Sistema of Russia), Uninor (joint venture between Unitech and Telenor of Norway), Etisalat DB (joint venture between Swan and Etisalat of UAE), S Tel, Videocon, Tata and Idea.
The court refused to direct the CBI to probe the role of P Chidambaram and said that the trial court is competent enough to decide on the issue. It also dismissed the demand for a special investigation team (SIT) probe into the 2G scandal.
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