The Supreme Court on Tuesday said whatever steps the central government takes for regularising 2G spectrum licences of firms which failed to fulfill their rollout obligations would be subject to the final outcome of the petition that has challenged the allocation in 2008 at 2001 prices.
The apex court bench of Justice G.S. Singhvi and Justice Asok Kumar Ganguly said: “We do not know if they (central government) have done anything. But anything they would do would be subject to the final outcome of the petition.”
The court said this when senior counsel Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the Centre for Public Interest Litigation, sought interim order of the court restraining the telecom ministry from imposing the penalties on telecom operators in order to bail them out of their failure to fulfill the licence and rollout obligations.
The court directed the central government and telecom operators to file their replies within three weeks and rejoinder to these replies within a week.
The court’s direction came during the hearing of a petition that sought cancellation of licences to all telecom companies which were granted 2G spectrum in 2008 at 2001 prices.
The case will come up for hearing March 1.
