Govt not to challenge 2G order, limited review likely

Supreme Court had cancelled 122 2G licences granted to nine telecom operators including Tata Tele, based on the first-come-first served policy

PTI | March 1, 2012



The Indian government will not challenge the Supreme Court decision to cancel 122 telecom licences issued, Telecom Secretary R Chandrashekhar said on Wednesday, but indicated that a limited review of the decision may be sought.

"We are not looking at challenging the cancellation of the licences per se," Chandrashekhar told reporters on the sidelines of a Ficci event here.

The government has one month from the date of the apex court's February 2 judgement to file a review petition and Chandrashekhar said a decision will be taken before that.

"... by the end of this week, we expect to be able to take the key decisions... all legal options are on the table at this point," he said.

The apex court on February 2 had cancelled 122 2G licences granted to nine telecom companies including Tata Teleservices Ltd, based on the first-come-first served policy for 22 circles.

The court had directed that the licences for the radio waves have to be sold through auction.

A bench of justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly (since retired) had also imposed a heavy cost of Rs five crore on Tata Teleservices Ltd, Etisalat DB Telecom Pvt Ltd (Swan Telecom Ltd) and Unitech Wireless Group.

Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal had previously stated that the judgement had ramifications on several other sectors of the economy where natural resources like mines are allocated on the Supreme Court-condemned first-come-first-serve basis.

"There are a number of issues that arise from the Supreme Court order and these require careful analysis which is what we are doing... not only analysis of the issue but what are the legal options in terms of actions that can be taken," Chandrashekhar said.

Idea Cellular and Tata Teleservices have already moved the apex court seeking review of the judgement.

In its order cancelling the 122 telecom licences, the Supreme Court had asked the government to conduct an auction for spectrum within four months.

The government is contemplating a timeline of 400 days for the completion of auction process.

"The 400 day timeline has taken into account all the decision making involved including estabilishing committees, payment and assignment of frequencies and allocation of spectrum," he said.

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