The Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to pass any interim order for suspending the 2G licences of 69 telecom operators who failed to roll-out their services, saying no unilateral order could be passed as the companies have a right to be heard.
A bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and A.K. Ganguly, monitoring the CBI investigation in the 2G scam case, said the licences could not be cancelled merely on the basis of the CAG report as the companies also have a right to challenge the report and get an hearing from the court.
“The issue of rights are hear, we have to hear the matter, we can’t just cancel,” the bench said while making it clear to advocate Prashant Bhushan and former law minister and Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy who had moved petitions for cancelling of the licences.
Mr Bhushan had moved an additional application seeking suspension of the licences of those operators, who failed to roll-out their 2G services as per the contract, citing the CAG report and the TRAI recommendations.
The court said the CAG report could be one of the grounds for consideration when the case is to be evaluated in totality, but it could not be the sole basis for passing any order of suspension.
The court gave the government three weeks’ time to file its reply on the issue while acceding the request of the counsel for the companies that they would be able to file their replies only after government has made its stand clear.
As Mr Swamy alleged that telecom minister Kapil Sibal had been continuing with certain statements, the bench said the minister had “stopped” now.