Spectrum allocation policy row in court

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday sought a response from the Centre on a PIL challenging the use of first come-first serve method for apportioning spectrum to telecom players that allegedly cost the exchequer crores of rupees in revenue.

A Bench comprising Chief Justice A P Shah and Justice S Muralidhar asked the government to file its response within three weeks and posted the matter to December 10 for further hearing.

Arvind Gupta, the petitioner, alleged that the Union ministry of communications had followed a procedure that was against the recommendations of regulator Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.

“The ministry of communications has neither complied with the advice of finance ministry nor the advice of the PMO nor even the recommendations of Trai in allocating the spectrum,” he said, while seeking an independent probe into the allocation procedure “which caused a loss of Rs 50,000 crore to public exchequer”.

The petitioner questioned the policy on allocating spectrum (airwaves on which wireless communication is provided) without inviting an open tender and alleged that due to the faulty policy the government could not fetch a fair price in the context of the booming telecom market.

“The government arbitrarily allotted spectrum to private players without laying any transparent guidelines about the eligibility of potential telecom players,” he submitted.