Seven prominent personalities, six of whom had held high constitutional posts, in a fresh petition moved in the Supreme Court have sought cancellation of all 122 2G spectrum licences allotted by DoT under former telecom minister A. Raja while terming the notices issued to 69 allottees under the aegis of new minister Kapil Sibal an attempt to “obfuscate” the entire issue.
“These notices only obfuscate the real issues and divert attention from the massive fraud perpetrated on the nation by the DoT” under former telecom minister A. Raja, the seven personalities in their fresh petition said.
They include former Chief Election Commissioners J.M. Lyngdoh, T.S. Krishnamurthy, N. Gopaloaswami, former CVC P. Shankar, former Punjab DGP Julio F. Rebeiro, former Naval Chief and current chairman of Transparency International’s India Chapter R.H. Tahiliani and senior journalist Pranajoy Guha Thakurta.
These prominent citizens have requested the top court to apply “internationally accepted norms” for cancelling of the 2G licences, stating that it was an established practice in most of the advanced countries that any transactions “tainted by bribery, corruption or made in violation of established norms and procedure are considered illegal and unenforceable” and were rebounded.
The same must be held in this case. In addition, punitive damages must be imposed on the companies that made false declarations or who violated their undertakings given to the government on various counts, including putting in place the mandatory rollout plan for 2G services within the time frame stipulated in the allotment contracts, they urged.
Since the illegalities pointed out by CAG in its report on 2G spectrum allotment were “galore” apart from the national auditor estimating the total loss of revenue to nation at `1.76 lakh crores, “it is in the fitness of things that the entire 2G spectrum be taken back by the government and put to auction so that scarce spectrum resources can be fairly and transparently allocated giving proper revenue to the nation,” they contented.
They further said that such harsh measures were necessary to set an example in the prevailing circumstances when “corruption in high places” had seriously impaired the decision making process and affected the right of the people to live in corruption and crime free society.
Besides, they urged the top court to direct the Centre to recover “windfall profit” that might have been earned by allottee companies through sale of spectrum, or equity in the companies whose sole or substantial assets were only 2G allocated by DoT. These personalities have joined NGOs Centre for PIL, Lok Satta and Common Cause.