Setback to 2G licence holders; SC issues notices

New Delhi, Jan 10: A major setback rolled out to the eleven telecom companies, which received 2G licence during former telecom minister A Raja's tenure, as the Supreme Court issued notice to the centre and the telecom ministry on petitions seeking cancellation of 2G spectrum allocation.

The court on Monday, Jan 10 issued notices to the Department of Telecom (DoT) and Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

The eleven telecom companies, whose 2G licences are supposed to be cancelled, are - Vodafone, ESSAR South, Shyam Telelink, Tata Teleservices, Idea, Uninor, LOOP Telecom, Etisalat and Videocon.

The court took a hand on TRAI's so far inaction in the whole 2G spectrum scam and also criticised telecom minister Kapil Sibal over his expressing doubt on CAG report's efficiency.

The court held two petitions. One by Janata Party leader Subramanium Swami and the other by the Centre for Public Interest Litigation (PIL) headed by Prashant Bhushan.

After court's decision, Swami stated, "The whole procedure is illegal of advancing the cut off date. We want the whole process of licences to be cancelled, that's a huge loss to the country. The whole process should begin again including auction."

OneIndia News