Centre, telcos get SC notice

Centre, telcos get SC notice
PTI
NEW DELHI, JAN 10
The Supreme Court decided to examine the alleged illegalities in allocation of 2G spectrum during the tenure of former Telecom Minister A Raja asking the Centre and telecom companies to explain why the licences be not cancelled.
“Why won’t the licences be cancelled by this court” a Bench of Justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly said while questioning the role of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India which remained silent when the telecom companies failed to fulfill the roll-out obligation for the 2G spectrum.
It made TRAI a party to the petition and issued notices to the Department of Telecom and 11 companies which allegedly did not fulfill the roll-out obligations as per the terms and conditions of allocation of the spectrum.
The court took note of the submission that TRAI did not react when the telecom companies, which were issued licences in January 2008, failed to roll out the spectrum within a year of allocation.
“Why did TRAI not take action? Why was it silent for around one year and seven months? TRAI is treated as the highest regulatory authority in telecom sector and even in terms of the consumer. What was it doing?,” the Bench said.
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 national exchequer.
However, it refused to be drawn into the controversy in the wake of the statement of Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal who has disputed the CAG’s figure of Rs 1.76 lakh crore.
“We cannot take cognizance of that as it is not part of our record here”, the Bench said.
The Bench was also informed that those companies which had failed to roll-out the services in stipulated time had been regularised after the payment of penalties.