SC notices to 7 telcos, govt on 2G case transfer from high court

The Supreme Court on Monday issued notices to the government and seven telecom companies on a petition seeking the transfer of a case regarding excess spectrum allocation, pending in the Delhi High Court, to the apex court.

The bench headed by Justice G S Singhvi gave four weeks to the parties to respond to the transfer petition, moved by a non-government organisation (NGO) called Telecom Watchdog.

According to the organisation, the department of telecommunications has allocated spectrum to the existing operators in excess of their contractual entitlement without charging them entry fee or other charges. This has caused substantial loss to the exchequer, it was alleged. The distribution of scarce national resources is in violation of the licence conditions, the NGO said, and was done in an arbitrary manner.

There is already a case before the Supreme Court on these grounds. Therefore, the petitioner sought the transfer of its petition in the high court to the Supreme Court so that the cases can be heard together.

The telecom companies involved are Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar, Reliance Telecom, Idea Cellular, Loop, Spice and Aircel Cellular.