The NGO, Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) and Janata Party president Subramaniam Swamy made their submission before a Bench comprising Justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly seeking cancellation of licences.
“The allotment of spectrum in 2008 at the price prevailing in 2001 on first-come-first-served policy followed by the government was arbitrary, illegal and was meant to benefit few telecom companies,” CPIL counsel Prashant Bhushan said.
“This country and its natural resourcess are not for loot and this message needs to be sent out to private companies and foreign investors. An impression has been created that the country is a banana republic and it needs to be dispelled,” he alleged.
He placed before the court a news report about the estimated loss by Trai to the public exchequer in the allocation of 2G spectrum, prompting the Bench to ask Additional Solicitor General Indira Jaising to examine the issue and place before it the Trai report prepared last month.
Spectrum was sold at a “throwaway” price and the government had even fiddled with the first-come-first-served policy by preponing the cut-off date from October 1 to September 25, 2008 for filing applications, he said.
Bhushan said the companies which did not fulfill eligibility criteria were given clearance a day before the Letter of Intent (LoI) was issued by the Department of Telecommunication on January 10, 2008.
National security
In his submission, Swamy said DoT had allotted spectrum to the even such companies which were having doubtful credentials by ignoring an important aspect of national security.
He referred to United Arab Emirate-based Etisalat Telecom that was allowed despite Ministry of Home Affairs raising objections on the issue of foreign exchange clearance.
The court was hearing the PILs filed by CPIL, Swamy and others including Telecom Watchdog, Common Cause (both NGOs), former Chief Election Commissioners J M Lyngdoh, T S Krishnamurthy and N Gopalaswami along with former Central Vigilance Commissioner P Shankar.
During the hearing, former Telecom Minister A Raja, prime accused in judicial custody in the 2G case, came in sharp criticism by the Supreme Court for using “intemperate” and “objectionable” language in a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the issue of spectrum allocation policy.
The apex court was anguished over the tone and tenor of Raja’s letter to the Prime Minister wherein words like “unfair, discriminatory, capricious and arbitrary” were used. “The decorum required that the language must be polite and temperate,” the Bench said.
The court, that heard the matter throughout the day, observed that the Centre had adopted “arm-twisting” policy against the S-Tel company for challenging DoT’s policy in 2G spectrum allocation in court.
The hearing on the issue is likely to continue on Thursday.
Verdict on CVC likely today
The Supreme Court is likely to pronounce its judgment on Thursday on petitions challenging the appointment of former bureaucrat P J Thomas as Central Vigilance Commissioner as he faced a corruption case in Kerala, DHNS reports from New Delhi.
A Bench of Chief Justice S H Kapadia and Justices K S Radhakrishnan and Swatanter Kumar had reserved its judgment on February 10. A PIL filed by an NGO, Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) and retired bureaucrats and police officials, including former Chief Election Commissioner J M Lyngdoh, had claimed before the court that Thomas was not a man of “impeccable integrity”.