SC rejects PIL claim of Rs 37,000 cr spectrum loss

Says the petition relying only on newspaper clippings

PTI | July 7, 2011



The Supreme Court today declined to entertain a PIL that alleged a whooping loss of Rs 37,000 crore to the exchequer on account of private telecom operators inflating their subscribers base to garner the scarce spectrum.

The petition alleged that besides causing the huge loss, the modus operandi adopted by the telecom operators posed serious threat to national security as thousands of SIM cards were distributed free of cost without basic verification.

A bench of justices G S Singhvi and H L Dattu sought to know from counsel Subhash Sharma locus standi of the petitioner "Aam Admi", an NGO, and said it was not inclined to entertain the PIL as no sufficient materials were placed before it.

"We want to know how many PILs you have filed earlier.

Your petition is relying only on newspaper clippings. There is no independent material," the bench told the counsel while dismissing the petition.

Founder of the NGO-Avishek Goenka in his petition claimed that the telecom companies provide a deceitful data of the total numbers of subscribers so as to inflate the subscribers base and illegally capture huge spectrum.

"This approach is adopted by the telecom companies with an idea to keep on acquiring extra spectrum, whose monetary value is very high as well as the same is a scarce national resource owing to the fact that it is a vital utility element for defence organisation.

 

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