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SC chides ministry for bypassing telecom panel

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CIOL Bureau
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NEW DELHI, INDIA: The Supreme Court on Tuesday chided the Communications Ministry for going by its convenience in approaching the Telecom Commission as and when it was expedient and ignoring it on other occasions.

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"It (Telecom Commission) is one of the most important components of the entire (telecom) system. The Telecom Commission is bypassed not by X or Y but by all. Why? What was the object behind it? When it is convenient, go to the Telecom Commission and when it is not, bypass it," said an apex court bench of Justice G.S. Singhvi and Justice A.K. Ganguly.

The court's observation came in the wake of the submission that at one stage, there was a suggestion to refer the allocation of 2G (second generation) licences to the Finance Ministry. The judges asked if it was not necessary for the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to take up the matter with the Telecom Commission.

The court was hearing a petition by Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy seeking the cancellation of 2G licences granted to telecom operators in January 2008 at 2001 prices and their failure to carry out their rollout obligations.

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Swamy alleged wrongdoings by the DoT in the grant of licences to telecom companies. The alleged lapses included advancing the cut-off date for filing applications for the licences and ignoring the first-come-first-served policy.

The court wanted to know who had overturned the 2003 cabinet decision for the allocation of licences, spectrum and their fair distribution.

The court said: "When we were young, we never even thought that anybody can bypass the prime minister's decision."

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Senior counsel Harish Salve told the court that the quashing of 2G licences of telecom operators would amount to perpetuating the follies committed earlier. Salve appeared for some of the telecom operators.

He said that if the question was that of providing a level playing field to all the operators in the market, the same yardstick should be applicable to all be it those who got the licence in 2003, 2006 or 2007.

The arguments would continue Wednesday.

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