With less than two months left for the auction of the 122 cancelled 2G telecom licences, as mandated by the Supreme Court, the government is once again going to approach the apex court seeking an extension. As per the court order, the government has to conduct the 2G auctions by August 31.
Citing delay on the part of the eGoM in deciding the reserve price, which has further caused delays in laying out the procedure of the auction including the auctioneer, a note written by the co-convener of the inter-ministerial committee (IMC), constituted to oversee the upcoming auctions, said: “The committee has assessed that it would not be able to meet the SC deadline of August 31, considering that important decisions of price-related issues and rollout obligations are still pending from the eGoM and the auctioneer can be selected only after the final guidelines are issued.?
Sources said the government will place its plea before the apex court once eGoM, tasked with deciding the modalities of the auction, ratifies a proposal to this effect. The proposal was mooted on June 29 by the IMC constituted to oversee the upcoming auctions.
This will be the second time that the government will express its inability to conduct the auctions within the deadline mandated by the Supreme Court.
In its February 2 order, quashing 122 telecom licences, the Supreme court had asked the government to conduct 2G spectrum auctions by June 2. The government responded by filing a writ petition seeking clarification from the court on the matter. In its petition, the government had prayed that it be given 400 days to complete the auction process, but the court granted an extension only till August 31.
The IMC has further said that once the reserve price is fixed, the auctioneer would need further time for designing auction and finally issuing a certificate of compliance to the auctioneer for the software and the hardware which will be used in the auction. This would also require time, the IMC has said.
Meanwhile, the primary reason for eGoM’s failure to decide on these crucial issues is the government’s inability to successfully appoint a chairman for the eGoM.
After Pranab Mukherjee’s resignation from the chairman’s post recently, the two successive meetings of the eGoM’s have been deferred as agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, who was named as the new chairman, decided to step down from the post within two days of the announcement.