The Supreme Court will be taking up the government?s request for an extension in the deadline for completing 2G spectrum auction on August 24, 2012, say news reports.
The decision to approach the Supreme Court for seeking an extension in the 2G spectrum auction deadline was taken by the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on telecom on August 7, 2012.
The government is asking for an extension in the deadline for 2G spectrum auction till November 12, 2012. Additionally, it is requesting the Supreme Court to give it another 40 days? time to complete the 2G spectrum auction and allot licences to operators. The government has also stated that the licenses of the existing operators will be valid till September 7, 2012.
Earlier, the Supreme Court had set August 31, 2012 as the deadline for the government to complete the 2G spectrum auction. However, due to delays in taking a decision on issues like base price of the spectrum and one-time licence fee to be paid by the existing players, the government was unable to meet the original deadline of August 31, 2012 for completing the 2G spectrum auction.
