The Supreme Court on Monday stepped in to examine the alleged illegalities in allocation of licences/spectrum by former telecom minister A Raja. The apex court issued notices to the government and 11 telecom companies, asking them to explain why their licences should not be cancelled for failing to meet rollout obligations. The Bench asked all of them to respond within three weeks and posted the matter for hearing on February 1.
The development comes even though new telecom minister Kapil Sibal has already sent similar notices to 119 telecom companies asking them to respond within 60 days.
The SC also took a harsh view on the silence of Trai for a long time even as the new licensees failed to meet rollout obligations. The Trai sent its recommendations to the department of telecommunications (DoT) only on November 15 asking for cancelation of 69 licences for not meeting the rollout obligations as required under the licence conditions.
Accordingly, the SC made Trai a party to the petition and issued notices to DoT and 11 companies that did not fulfil rollout obligations. The companies are Etisalat DB, Uninor, Loop Telecom, Videocon, S-Tel, Allianz Infra, Idea Cellular, Tata Teleservices, Sistema Shyam Teleservices, Dishnet Wireless and Vodafone-Essar. The Bench was hearing the petition filed by an NGO, Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL), seeking cancellation of all licences issued allegedly flouting all norms and, which according to the CAG report has caused a loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore to the exchequer. The SC refused to be drawn into the controversy in the wake of the statement of Sibal last week disputing the CAG figure and saying that no loss was caused. ?We cannot take cognizance of that as it is not part of our record here,? the Bench said. The Bench was also informed that companies that had failed to roll out the services in stipulated time had been regularised after the payment of penalties. However, it took note of the submission of CPIL?s advocate Prashant Bhushan that Trai has taken cognizance of some of the companies? failure to meet the rollout obligation and a communication has been sent to DoT regarding this.