A Supreme Court Bench comprising Justice G.S. Singhvi and A.K. Ganguly told the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) to obtain permission from the Chief Justice of India to transfer its plea challenging the Government?s dual technology spectrum allocation policy.
COAI?s plea is being heard by a separate Bench comprising Justices Altamas Kabir and Cyriac Joseph. However, the lobby has asked for its petition to be transferred before the Bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and A.K. Ganguly. The Bench of Justices Singhvi and Ganguly has ordered a court-monitored probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate into the alleged 2G spectrum issue involving A. Raja, former Minister of Telecommunications and IT, who, according to the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG)?s report, has caused a presumptive loss of Rs 1.76 trillion to the exchequer.
At the last hearing on February 10 2011, the Bench had asked the CBI to bring under its scanner corporate houses which were beneficiaries of the 2G spectrum scam without being influenced by their status, whether they are millionaires or on the Forbes rich list.
The COAI had approached the Supreme Court in 2009 challenging The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT)?s judgement, which upheld the Department of Telecommunications? (DoT) dual technology spectrum allocation policy. It had made DoT, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), Reliance Communications (RCOM), Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL), HFCL Infotel Limited and others as parties to its plea.
The TDSAT, on March 31, 2009, upheld DoT?s dual spectrum allocation policy allowing RCOM and TTSL, who operated the CDMA-based cellular services, to get GSM spectrum for operating their services.
The petition filed by COAI, Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular, Spice Communications and Vodafone Essar said TDSAT wrongly upheld the DoT?s decision to enhance the criteria for allocation of additional spectrum, besides upholding the dual spectrum allocation policy.
The plea charged that TDSAT failed to appreciate that cellular operators had a vested and accrued right to receive spectrum up to 15 MHz. The COAI said the1999 National Telecom Policy, which was the basis of a contractual settlement between cellular operators and DoT, promised optimal and adequate spectrum to every operator and they were to get GSM spectrum up to 15 MHz at specified rates on a revenue-sharing basis. The DoT, on October 18, 2007, amended the telecom rules, allowing CDMA players to enter the GSM mobile space.
The TDSAT stated that there was nothing irregular in granting 4.4 MHz as start-up spectrum to RCom and rejected the GSM lobby group?s contention that they have the right to hold spectrum up to 15 MHz.
