The Centre has decided to withdraw from the Supreme Court (SC) its petition seeking a review of the court’s judgment in the 2G case. Besides cancelling licences, the verdict also emphasised on an auction as the most appropriate method of allocating spectrum.
This has been done in view of the government realising that the limited reconsideration of the 2G verdict would not address all its concerns.
With this move, the government’s hope for a judicial relook at the apex court’s verdict rests on the outcome of the presidential reference which is seeking a complete reconsideration of the principle inherent in the 2G judgment. The presidential reference covers all the issues on which the government wants the court to take a comprehensive relook at its 2G order.
The President sent a reference on 2G to the Supreme Court on April 13, 2012. Thereafter, a Supreme Court bench permitted a limited review of its 2G spectrum verdict.
Meanwhile, the government questioned the auction only route for distribution of spectrum. It argued that revenue maximisation could not be the guiding principle for policy making. The government also questioned the separation of powers of the legislature and the judiciary, on grounds that the court had surpassed its domain while prescribing auction as the solitary means of granting licences.
