Govt, Raja seek 2G review
Former communications minister A. Raja on Friday joined the government to seek a review of the Supreme Court’s verdict cancelling 122 licences for 2G spectrum allocated by him in 2008, though the reasons for seeking the review cited by him and the Centre were entirely different.
Mr Raja and the government filed their respective petitions with the court’s registry. The Centre earlier filed a clarification petition Thursday on the mode of auction of 2G licences as directed by the court with a deadline of four months. The department of telecom said it needed much more time, till March 2013, to complete the exercise.
In Friday’s review petition, the government said it limited its objections to the court finding fault with the telecom policy, including the “first-come-first-served” policy laid down during the NDA period.
While communications minister Kapil Sibal criticised the BJP over this after the court ruling, in the review petition the UPA government defended the policy, saying the court’s conclusions, that the “policy per se is flawed”, needed a relook as there was limited scope of judicial review of a policy laid down by the executive.
The government made it clear it was not challenging the verdict beyond the legal question on the “scope of judicial review” of executive policy decisions.
Mr Raja, on the other hand, sought a review over certain critical findings on his role in allocating the 122 letters of intent for 2G licences. He said the court had drawn conclusions about his role without hearing his point of view.
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