2G: SC commences hearing on Presidential Reference

The NGO, Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL), said the apex court should refuse to answer the questions raised in the Reference which was "not maintainable" as the February 2 judgement for the 2G spectrum attained finality and the review filed against it was subsequently withdrawn by the government.

"Under the garb of the Presidential Reference, you (government) are seeking to question the correctness of the judgement and seeking to overrule the judgement which has reached its finality," senior advocate Soli Sorabjee, appearing for the NGO, told a five-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice S H Kapadia.

However, the bench clarified that it was not on the question of correctness of the judgement and repeatedly said it wanted to know whether it was entitled to entertain the Reference or not if there was any doubt over "interpretation" of law in the judgement.

"We have no doubt about the correctness of the verdict on the spectrum (2G) but if the judgement is extended to cover other natural resources don't you think there is a doubt over interpretation of law in the judgement and are we not entitled to go into the Presidential Reference?" said the Bench, also comprising justices D K Jain, J S Khehar, Dipak Mishra and Ranjan Gogai.

The bench also wanted to know if it was not entitled to answer to the President those aspects of natural resources which have not been dealt with in the judgement and could be allocated in future like pricing of oil and gas.