HC refuses to hear plea on grant of free 2G spectrum to telcos

The Delhi High Court today refused to entertain a PIL challenging the allocation of 2G spectrum beyond the entry level of 4.4 MHz and 6.2 MHz by government to telecom companies without charging additional fee.

A bench of Acting Chief Justice A K Sikri and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw refused to hear the petition saying the Supreme Court is monitoring a case relating to the grant of 2G licences and, moreover, the trial was also on.

"The subject matter of this petition is also the subject matter of the matter being heard by the Supreme Court," the bench said, adding that "if we [high court] entertain [this plea] then there would be so much overlapping".

The court brushed aside the contention of the petitioner, advocate Yakesh Anand, that the substance of the case being monitored by the apex court is different.

Anand, in his petition, said that the scarce resource of spectrum was "illegally" distributed to telecom operators without charging any spectrum fee since 1996, which has caused a loss to the tune of around Rs 37,000 crore to the exchequer.

The petition said that a maximum of 4.4 MHz spectrum could be alloted to telecom operators awarded licence in 1994-95 and 6.2 MHz to those awarded licence after 2001 against the payment of entry fee and grant of spectrum beyond that had to be charged.

It said among private telecom operators, Bharti Airtel has 32.4 MHz additional spectrum in 13 circles, Vodafone Essar Mobile Services has 19.6 MHz in 7 circles, Idea Cellular has 12.6 MHz in 6 circles and BPL, Aircel, Relaince and Spice have 1.6 to 3.8 MHz in one circle. It also said that BSNL and MTNL have 61.6 MHz and 12.4 MHz in 19 and 2 cirlces respectively.

The petition alleged that the DoT "distributed spectrum to the private operators in an illegal way in violation of National Telecom Policy of 1999, and licence conditions."