Centre not for Supreme Court's 2G order review

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With a Delhi court clearing Union home minister P. Chidambaram of allegedly playing a role in the multicrore 2G scam, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh held a high-level meeting at his residence on Saturday to discuss the Supreme Court verdict cancelling 122 licences for 2G spectrum.

Sources disclosed that the government is not likely to go for a review of the top court verdict on cancellation of 2G spectrum licences.

The government would instead prefer that the private telecom companies and corporate houses hit by the verdict to file review petitions. The meeting was attended by top ministers, including finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, communications and IT minister Kapil Sibal and law minister Salman Khurshid.

Attorney-General G.E. Vahanvati and telecom secretary R. Chandrashekhar were also present. The Prime Minister has reportedly sought Mr Vahanvati’s opinion on the Supreme Court verdict.

“The meeting was to inform senior ministers of the implications and ramifications of the judgment. This group was not meant to take any decision,” Sibal said.

The meeting also centred around re-framing of the rules for the “auction” of the licences, as directed by the apex court, sources said.

It may be recalled that the top court, which had found “fundamental flaws” in the “first-come-first-served (FCFS)” policy for allocation of spectrum, introduced by the then NDA government, directed that the licences be re-issued on open bidding. A deadline of four months has been set by the Supreme Court.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has been given two months to come out with fresh guidelines. There are indications that the new rules could possibly scrap the FCFS policy for the allocation of spectrum.