Supreme Court cancels all 122 2G licences, refers the matter of Chidambaram back to the trial court
The Supreme Court has cancelled all 122 2G licences handed out in India. Eighty-five out of the 122 licences are outside the eligibility criteria. The TRAI must go in for a fresh issue of licences, ruled the Supreme Court.
In another critical judgment, the Supreme Court referred the matter of whether the role of former Finance Minister P Chidambaram should be probed back to the trial court. This represents a breather for Chidambaram, but it does not lift the cloud over him.
Earlier report: It is a big day in the 2G spectrum scam on Thursday as three crucial verdicts are expected in the Supreme Court on the multi-crore scam. First and the most significant, the apex court is set to deliver its judgment on former finance minister and Home Minister P Chidambaram's role in the scam.
Second, it will also decide on whether the 2G licences allotted to the tainted companies should be cancelled or not.
And lastly, the Supreme Court is also likely to pass an order on whether a Special Investigation Team (SIT) should oversee the CBI probe in the scam.
These judgments will be pronounced by Justice GS Singhvi. Incidentally, one of the judges hearing the case is retiring on Thursday.
Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy and noted lawyer Prashant Bhushan are the key petitioners in the scam.
Plea to probe Chidambaram's role
Subramanian Swamy, in his plea, stated that the Finance Ministry repeatedly pointed out that spectrum allocation could not be determined by the entry fee of 2001, and the Finance Ministry earlier backed the market-discovered price for the spectrum.
He also claimed that since the Finance Ministry cannot be overruled by the Telecom Ministry, it was impossible for the then telecom minister A Raja to move ahead without the concurrence of the then Finance Minister P Chidambaram.
Swamy has insisted that despite Chidambaram recognising the fact that the most transparent method of allocating the spectrum would be through auction, he did not oppose the pricing on the basis of 2001 .
Even when the Prime Minister favoured the auction of spectrum, Raja and Chidambaram jointly decided on spectrum pricing and allowed the licenses to be traded, and conveyed their joint decision to the Prime Minister. Chidambaram also overruled his own officials in this regard.
Plea for cancellation of 2G licences
Subramanian Swamy has also asked for the cancellation of the 2G licences. Swamy argues the licenses and spectrum were allotted in 2008 at the 2001 prices when it was absolutely clear that the value of the spectrum had multiplied, thereby causing a huge loss to the public exchequer.
The CAG has calculated the 2G loss at a whopping Rs 1.76 lakh crore.
The PIL also states that granting of licences and spectrum on 'first come first serve' basis is clearly arbitrary and malafide.
Swamy also claims that the cut-off date of receiving applications for telecom licenses was advanced from the declared date of October 1, 2007 to September 25, 2007.
Also, 85 of the 122 licenses did not even fulfill the basic eligibility conditions.
Plea for SIT probe
Senior lawyer Prashant Bhushan has asked for SIT to oversee the CBI probe in the 2G scam.
He has also questioned why Anil Ambani has not been not chargesheeted and why was Datacom given a clean chit in the scam.
He also questioned why Dayanidhi Maran was not chargesheeted and why is the CBI not following the money trail.
He added that if the CBI's investigation is not rectified now, it may cause the prosecution's case to collapse against the existing accused and also result in real big players and beneficiaries who caused this scam to get away.
No comments:
Post a Comment