LawMin seeks AG's opinion on apex court 2G order

The government will take a final call on challenging the Supreme Court’s order cancelling 122 2G licences issued in January 2008 by telecom minister A Raja only after it receives Attorney General Goolam E Vahanvati’s opinion on the judgment.

A senior government official told Business Standard the law ministry had asked the Attorney General (AG) to examine the order and give his opinion. The government is keeping a close tab on the developments following the decision in which several affected telecom companies are contemplating to go to court to seek relief. Telecom minister Kapil Sibal and Vahanvati met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday to take stock of the situation.

On whether the government was contemplating a review petition against the order, the official said, “We have not reached that stage.”

A clear picture is expected to emerge on the impact of the judgment by the time the government receives the AG’s opinion. The next course of action would only be decided after analysing various aspects associated with the government move.

Sibal had earlier said after the government would accept the SC verdict and the companies seeking relief would need to go to court for the same.

Some of the telecom operators, whose Unified Access Service Licence (UASL) to provide 2G services were cancelled by the court last week are already planning to approach the Telecom Disputes Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) to demand financial compensation from the government.

They are also contemplating a review petition in the SC. The compensation demand would include paying back the licence fee, with interest, as well as for the investment they’ve made on their networks. The operators had paid Rs 1,651 crore each for a pan-India UASL licence.

Uninor, Sistema, Etisalat and S Tel have said they are contemplating various legal options to protect their investments. The SC had also directed the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India to make fresh recommendations for the auction route within four months.

The companies whose licences have been scrapped, apart from Uninor (a joint venture between Norway’s Telenor and the Unitech Group), Sistema Shyam (JV between Russia’s Sistema and Shyam Telecom), are S Tel, Videocon, Idea Cellular, Tata Teleservices, Loop Mobile and Etisalat DB (JV between UAE’s Etisalat and Swan Telecom).