The Supreme Court on Thursday again put the government in the dock in the 2G scam case for not taking firm action on the Prime Minister’s letter to the then communications minister, Mr A. Raja, asking him to sell the “scarce” spectrum through auction.
Terming November 2, 2007, when the PM wrote to Mr Raja, as a “crucial date”, a bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and H.L. Dattu said it would have been “avoided” had the PMO and the finance ministry acted as suggested by the “head of the government”.
This came in response to the CBI’s reply to a specific query about what other material it had for opposing the bail pleas of several corporate honchos in jail for the past seven months. “You (CBI) are expressing apprehension that they might tamper with evidence and affect the CBI case. All through we had restrained (ourselves from) the temptation of asking... The chargesheet does contain the date 2-11-2007, which is a crucial date, everyone knows it.”
“...It (the PM’s letter) says spectrum is a scarce commodity, it should be auctioned. The minister did not agree. The finance ministry had been objecting throughout. It is not that the government was not aware of it. Telecom Commission’s meeting was deferred from January 9 (2008) to January 15. It was felt by the government, at least from a revenue point of view, that it was not in the public interest. What prevented them (from restraining Mr Raja)? Everything has now become a post-event exercise; by taking a decision the government could have avoided the entire exercise in and outside the court. LIO (letters of intent issued by Raja) never created a right,” the top court told ASG Haren Raval, appearing for the CBI.