Natural resources must be auctioned: SC told

The Centre's plea seeking review of the Supreme Court's 2G ruling that natural resources should be allotted to private companies only through "auction" was today opposed in the apex court.

The NGO Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL), on whose plea the apex court had started monitoring of probe in the 2G scam, submitted before a bench headed by Justice GS Singhvi that by not adopting auctioning process scarce resources like minerals are being given away at a fraction of their market price to private companies.

"No business is as profitable as the business of dealing in natural resources. Scarce resources like minerals are being given away at a fraction of their market price, thereby giving windfall profits to the corporates at the cost of the public exchequer," the NGO said.

"The natural resources, today, are all scarce resources that are dwindling by the day, and every citizen needs to have access to these resources for development. All these resources have, therefore, acquired huge economic and commercial value, as is clear from the fact that the corporations that deal in them have become abnormally rich," it said.

The CPIL's response came in response to a notice issued by the bench while admitting the Centre's review plea.

"The government in its review petition has failed to point out why it is opposed to auctioning scarce natural resources, and through what other methods it wishes to alienate them," the NGO said.