SC rejects curative petitions of Sistema, TTSL & Idea

With this, curative petitions of other companies —Videocon Telecommunications, Tata Teleservices and Idea Cellular —were also rejected.

A bench comprising three senior judges led by Chief Justice Altamas Kabir said that “no case is made out” and “hence, the curative petitions are dismissed.” It also rejected SSTL’s applications for stay and appropriate directions filed in the curative petition.

Besides, the bench, which also comprised justices P Sathasivam and GS Singhvi, also rejected former telecom minister A Raja’s plea for grant of “permission to file curative petitions”.

Now Sistema Shyam Teleservices (SSTL), which offers mobile services on the CDMA platform under the MTS brand, has no option but to bid in the second round of 2G spectrum auction scheduled for March 11. SSTL, which is set to lose licence in all but one of its 22 telecom zones, had opted out of participating in the first round of 2G spectrum auction in November following cancellation of its licences, saying the price was too high.

However, the company had indicated during the last court hearing on Monday that it was ready to participate in the next round of 2G spectrum auction scheduled for March 11 and would take a decision on February 22 to choose the circles.’

Commeting on the dismissal of its curative petition by the SC, SSTL said, “It is unfortunate that the Hon’ble Supreme Court has not

... contd.