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Spectrum: court asks petitioner to amend plea

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Social Action Forum for Manav Adhikar, a non-governmental organisation, to amend its petition seeking a CBI probe into the alleged loss of Rs. 10,000 crore to the government in the allocation of ‘spectrum’ without inviting bids and holding a public auction.

A three-Judge Bench, comprising Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, Justice R.V. Raveendran and Justice J.M. Panchal, granted time to senior counsel P.H. Parekh, appearing for the petitioner, to amend the petition and to bring on record relevant materials.

The CJI told Mr. Parekh, “You cannot prevent the government from taking a policy decision. Let them [government] take a decision and you can challenge it. The government is the best person to decide who the best bidder is. Judiciary cannot decide this.” When Mr. Justice Raveendran pointed out that the petitioner had not mentioned for whom the favour was being done, Mr. Parekh said the petitioner would amend the petition and place all the material before the court. The petitioner had sought a direction that allocation of spectrum be done through auction and not on the basis of first-cum-first-served basis.

The petitioner alleged that the respondents — Communications Secretary and A. Raja, Union Minister for Information Technology and Communications — “ought to follow a uniform policy on allocating spectrum and if 3G spectrum is to be auctioned, then on parity of reasoning 2G spectrum must also be allocated by way of public auction.”

While seeking a CBI probe into the matter, it sought a direction to set aside the decision and to direct the government to hold a public auction for allocation of spectrum.

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