SC dismisses pleas of A Raja, telecom companies against scrapping of 2G spectrum licences

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed curative petitions of several telecom firms for re-examination of its verdict cancelling 122 2G spectrum licences allocated during tenure of former telecom minister A Raja. The court also denied permission to Raja to file his curative petition. The companies whose petitions were rejected are Videocon Telecommunications Ltd, Sistema Shyam Teleservices Ltd (SSTL), Tata Teleservices Ltd (TTSL) and Idea Cellular Ltd.

A bench of Chief Justice Altamas Kabir and justices P Sathasivam and GS Singhvi rejected the plea of the telecom firms and Raja saying "no case is made out". "We have gone through the curative petitions and the relevant documents. In our opinion, no case is made out within the parameters indicated in the decision of this Court in Rupa Ashok Hurra vs Ashok Hurra & Anr. Hence, the curative petitions are dismissed.

"As far as curative petition of Raja is concerned, permission to file curative petitions is rejected," it said adding "Consequently, applications for stay and appropriate directions are rejected." A curative petition is filed after the dismissal of review petition and is decided in the chambers of judges. Earlier on April 3, 2012, the apex court had dismissed the review petitions of Videocon Telecommunications Ltd, S Tel Ltd, SSTL, TTSL, Unitech Wireless (Tamil Nadu) Pvt Ltd, Etisalat DB Telecom Pvt Ltd and Idea Cellular Ltd.

The companies whose petitions were rejected are Videocon Telecommunications, Sistema Shyam Teleservices, Tata Teleservices and Idea Cellular.

A bench of justices GS Singhvi and AK Ganguly (since retired), on February 2, 2012, had cancelled the 122 2G licences holding as unconstitutional the policy of first-come-first-served. Reacting to the dismissal of the curative petition, SSTL in a statment said,"It is unfortunate that the Supreme Court has not admitted the curative petition of SSTL. "The company believes that it has been unfairly penalised in the February 2, 2012 order by the Supreme Court. While SSTL remains committed to its operations, however, it would be up to the shareholders to decide the go forward strategy of the company."

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