After the government had come under severe attack form the Supreme Court while cancelling the 122 licences for 2G spectrum, the apex court was approached on Saturday for transferring to itself the two-year-old “excess spectrum” case against seven private telecom companies from the Delhi high court.
NGO telecom watchdog, which had filed a writ petition in the HC in 2008 alleging that almost all the major private service providers were allowed to use spectrum airwaves more than the “limit” fixed in the licence agreements with them, pleaded the top court that the issue needed to be adjudicated by it in view of it already seized of the matter.
The NGO’s transfer petition filed with the top court registry alleged that by allowing the private service providers to use spectrum airwaves in “excess” than the licence agreements, the officials concerned in DoT had caused huge loss to the government due to the “unchecked irregularities” going on since 1995 when at least two private companies were permitted to provide the telecom service in each of the four metro cities. “Based on the price referred in the recommendations of TRAI, the CAG in its report of November 8, 2010 has worked out the loss to the tune of `36,993 crores to the exchequer on account of the free for allocation of spectrum beyond the contractual limits to the private players,” the petition said. As per the licence agreements, DoT could have allocated a maximum of 2x4.5 MHz spectrum to the private operators in four metros and 2x4.4 MHz in remaining telecom circles. There was also a clause that permitted DoT to provide additional spectrum up to 2x1.8 MHz considering the needs of consumers in a particular circle. Thus the “cumulative maximum” level of spectrum with a private player could go up to 2x6.2 MHz, which was the maximum limit fixed. “However, DoT exceeded the specified limit of 2x6.2 MHz and the telecom operators have received spectrum as high as 2x10 MHz that too without payment of any extra licence fee,” the NGO said while accusing DoT of “showering” the scarce spectrum resource on the private operators as goodies. The petition said that despite writing to the Prime Minister, Cabinet secretary, telecom secretary and central vigilance commissioner on several occasion on the issue by the NGO, no action had been taken till date.