2G spectrum: Supreme court frowns at government

The Union government had a lot of explaining to do before the Supreme Court on Tuesday on telecom minister A Raja’s decision to advance the cut-off date for allocation of 2G spectrum to new players.

A bench headed by Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan also had searching questions for Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium as to why the cut-off date was first extended and then reversed: “Why was the date extended from September 25 to October 1 when there were already large numbers of applications?”

The court was hearing a petition filed by the Centre challenging a Delhi High Court order that quashed its decision to advance the cut-off date and directed it to consider the applications of telecom operators who had applied for spectrum allocation till October 1.

The HC passed the judgment on a writ petition filed by a new Chennai-based player, S Tel, accusing the DoT of advancing the date for applying for 2G licences with a notification in January 2008 fixing the deadline as September 25, 2007, to deny it the prospective licence in 16 circles.

Nine companies who were lucky to get the licences had taken less than an hour to deposit demand drafts ranging between Rs 1,500 crore and Rs 1,600 crore.

Meanwhile, the comptroller and auditor general is also learnt to be seized of the audit of telecom ministry’s 2G and 3G spectrums allocation norms. The ministry’s move to give away licences at rates fixed in 2001 is said to have resulted in losses to the tune of Rs 60,000 crore to the exchequer.

The government now expects Rs 35,000 crore to accrue to the exchequer from sale of spectrum this fiscal.