By IANS,
New Delhi: The Supreme Court was told Tuesday that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has till now interrogated 63 people in connection with the 2G spectrum scam.
An apex court bench of Justice G.S. Singhvi and Justice A.K. Ganguly was informed by the central government that on its suggestion for setting up a special court to try cases arising out of the scam, the Delhi High Court chief justice had been approached and a reply was awaited.
The court told the government to get back to it with a definite answer by March 15.
The judges were hearing a petition filed by Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy seeking the cancellation of licences of telecom operators who failed to fulfill their 2G rollout obligations.
The government said that the rule of first-come-first-served was bent to make the entire process of allocation of second generation (2G) licences and spectrum arbitrary.
Attorney General G. Vahanvati told the court that in his earlier role as the solicitor general during the first tenure of the United Progressive Alliance government, the matter relating to spectrum allocation never came to him.
He said he was only associated with some general discussions.
Vahanvati said as the solicitor general, he was engaged in cases before the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) and the Delhi High Court.
He said that he had tendered his opinion to the government.
He said that the critical para wherein he said that if two licence applicants complied with the requirements of the letter of intent (issued by the communications ministry) at the same time, the grant of 2G licence should be decided on the basis of who was first in applying.
The attorney general’s clarification assumes significance in the wake of an application by Swamy seeking that Vahanvati should withdraw himself from the case as he tendered an opinion in the 2G matter.
Arguing for the cancellation of licences, senior counsel Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL), said that the grounds were sufficient to justify the cancellation.
The three grounds underlined by him included the grant of licence without auction, advancing the cut-off date from Oct 1, 2007 to Sep 25, 2007 and doing away with first-come-first-served policy and the arbitrariness with which the policy of “first to comply with the letter of intent” was implemented.
He said that Tata Teleservices applied for dual use technology licence Oct 22, 2007 but it was awarded the same over the rest. He said as per the first-come-first-served policy, 570 applicants were ahead of the company in the queue.
The senior counsel referred to another instance where a telecom service provider S Tel was made to withdraw its litigation on the threat that its existing licence would be cancelled.
The court asked the government to produce department of telecommunications’ letters dated March 5, 2010 and April 15, 2010 sent S Tel in the next hearing March 15.