India's Economy And Teleconnectivity

[Guest]

<b>Move to allocate ‘spectrum’ without auction challenged </b>
Legal Correspondent

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has been moved seeking a CBI probe into the projected ‘loss’ of Rs. 10,000 crore to the government following a decision to allocate ‘spectrum’ without inviting bids or holding a public auction.

Spectrum is the medium/air waves on which wireless/cellular mobile services are offered and is the most important input for the growth of wireless services.

Social Action Forum for Manav Adhikar, an NGO in its Public Interest Litigation petition said the Centre had announced that it would auction 3G spectrum but not done the same for 2G spectrum “which smacks of arbitrariness.”

It said “the respondents — Communications Secretary and A. Raja, Union Minister for Information Technology and Communications — in gross dereliction and abdication of their duty have gifted/squandered away spectrum — a valuable and scarce resource — at a throwaway price, without a public auction which is recognised as the best method to deal with a scarce resource.”

The petitioner said Mr. Raja had in a recent statement said the government was willing to auction 2G spectrum also but could not do so due to legal impediments.
It said “the respondents 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.”

“In the process the respondents have fixed/rigged the process/match towards a pre-determined decision-making and have given/conferred largesse to private interests to the detriment of the entire telecommunication sector. The government’s decision is therefore totally flawed, arbitrary, illegal and was taken in undue haste and hurry without following an open, fair and transparent process which is mandatory.”