CAG cannot be sole basis for spectrum cancellation: SC

The Supreme Court today made it clear that the CAG report cannot be the only basis for cancellation of licenses for the 2G Spectrum and any decision taken by the government on the issue will be subject to the outcome of the petitions pending before it.

"Everything they (government) do after filing of the petition, is subject to the outcome of the petitions," a bench comprising Justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly said.

"We do not know what they are doing. But if they do, it is subject to the outcome of our order," the bench said.

The remarks by the bench came on the plea by an NGO Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) which was seeking a direction to the government for restraining it from regularising the license of the telecom companies, which failed to meet the roll-out obligations.

NGO's counsel Prashant Bhushan said that the government was regularising the licenses of the companies by imposing penalties on the companies.

The bench further said, "If the licenses are going to be cancelled, it cannot be cancelled only on the basis of the CAG report."

The court was hearing two petitions filed by CPIL and Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy seeking cancellation of the licenses of 2G spectrum allotted during the tenure of former Telecom Minister A Raja on the ground that there were largescale irregularities on the allocation.

The court posted the hearing on the petitions for March 1.

During the brief hearing, Bhushan submitted that the CPIL has raised five grounds for cancellation of the licenses of 2G spectrum.

He said the spectrum were allocated without auction at the price prevailing in 2001 and the cut-off date was advanced which resulted in the elimination of two-third applicants.

Further, 85 out of 122 entities were ineligible operators and 69 of them failed to meet their roll-out obligations, Bhushan added.

The bench said all these factors will be considered at the time of hearing.