The Supreme Court has sought entire text of the two press releases issued by the department of telecom on January 10, 2008 to examine the alleged “mala fide” intention of former telecom minister A. Raja making drastic change in the ‘first come first serve’ policy on allocation of the 2G spectrum licenses to some “favoured” companies.
In fact the two press releases issued through PIB by DoT at 12 noon and 2.45 pm spelled out how the “favoured” companies — including nearly a dozen real estate players having no experience in telecom sector — were allowed to “jump the queue” by Mr Raja by making last minute amendment in the second press release in his own handwriting.
Though this has come in the CAG report currently being examined by a bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and A.K. Ganguly, the judges wanted to see the original text of the crucial press releases and asked Solicitor-General Gopal Subramaniam, appearing for the DoT to place their original texts on record. Besides, the SG was asked to submit whether any other information than the two press releases was given to 41 companies, which had submitted a total of 575 applications for spectrum licences in 22 telecom circles of the country.
While the first release advanced the cut off date for submission of applications from October 1, 2007 to September 25, 2007 straightaway eliminating 343 applicants out of 575, a crucial amendment introduced by Mr Raja in his own handwriting in the second press release changed the entire complexion of the FCFS policy. The amendment provided that the letter of Intent (LOI) would be given only to those who “fulfilled the conditions” of the LOIs, which were furnishing the bank draft, bank guarantees and other requ-ired documents on the spot.
As several companies, including the real estate players had come prepared with bank drafts of `1,600 each in advance along with two bank guarantees each along with 66 other documents, the CAG concluded that they apparently had prior information about what the minister was going to do for issuing LOIs.
With the change in the rules of the game, even those who had applied as late as September 24, 2007 — a day before the new cut off date introduced — walked away with the LIOs while those who had applied earlier a year or more than that were just left “aghast” with the sudden change in the FCFS policy.