The Supreme Court has declined to receive an application by the Centre to allow the administrative allocation of spectrum.
According to the registrar, the government was seeking a review of the 2012 order in the guise of seeking clarifications and said the move was misconceived. It added that there was no reasonable cause for entertaining the plea and that too after a lengthy period of time.
The registrar invoked Order XV Rule 5 of the Supreme Court Rules, 2013 to decline the application. Under this provision of the 2013 Rules, the registrar may refuse to receive a petition on the ground that it discloses no reasonable cause or is frivolous or contains scandalous matter. The government has 15 days to appeal to the court.
Further, the application filed by the Union government had said spectrum was assigned not only for commercial telecom services but also for discharge of sovereign and public interest functions such as security, safety, disaster preparedness, etc.
