SC raps S Tel for writing on pending matter

The Supreme Court today pulled up telecom company S Tel for writing to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on issues pending before the court. The SC was hearing an appeal moved by the government against the Delhi High Court judgment in the controversial spectrum allocation matter.

Making strong remarks against the conduct of the company, an SC Bench headed by Justice B Sudershan Reddy asked the company to file an affidavit explaining the circumstances in which it wrote to the government on a matter pending before the court. The case will be heard again on Friday.

Earlier, the high court had quashed the telecom ministry’s notification announcing the cut-off date for granting of telecom licences for 2G spectrum as September 25, 2007. This was in contradiction to Union Telecom Minister A Raja’s earlier announcement that the cut-off date for filing applications would be October 1 of the same year. Several companies were ousted from the competition because of the abrupt advancement of the date.

The high court order had gone in favour of the aggrieved firms. So, the government appealed to the Supreme Court.

At the last hearing, the government had told the apex court that applications for 2G spectrum by telecom companies had not been totally rejected, but it was following a policy of ‘first come, first served’. The high court order interfered with this policy, which will in effect wipe it out and introduce a formula of competition, which was not the intention of the government. It was also clarified that the applications were only kept “in abeyance”. Some 76 applications that were received between the two dates were kept in abeyance and would be processed in time.

S Tel’s letter was based on this submission by the government in the court. The letter stated that the company was agreeable to the government considering its application at the appropriate time with the court’s consent. The letter was read out by Attorney General G E Vahanvati today, which provoked the judges into criticising the telecom firm’s conduct.

Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy also appeared with some documents in his possession, seeking the court’s permission to intervene in the matter. According to him, the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Central Vigilance Commission are probing the 2G spectrum allocation process. The court is yet to hear him as an intervener.