Apex court admits Centre's petition on 2G auction process

India’s apex court today admitted the government’s review petition seeking a reconsideration of its judgment in the 2G scam pertaining to the allocation of spectrum only through the bidding process.

After the Supreme Court cancelled 122 2G licenses, the Centre filed a review petition in court seeking a clarification if the court order would apply to allocation of all other natural resources.

The Supreme Court, however, refused to issue a notice to telecom companies affected by its verdict in the 2G case.

The court also issued notices to non-governmental organisation Centre for Public Interest Litigation and Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy on the central government’s review plea.

Earlier on 4 April the Supreme Court dismissed the petitions of then telecom minister A Raja and all telecom companies who had  sought a review of judgements in the 2G spectrum case.

The Centre had sought a reconsideration of its judgement  in the 2G case over strictures against officials of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).

Dismissing the Centre’s review petition, NDTV reported that the bench of Justice GS Singhvi and Justice KS Radhakrishnan had said, “We have carefully perused the averments contained in the review petition and the grounds on which the petitioner has sought review of the judgment and are convinced that the judgment of which review has been sought does not suffer from any error apparent warranting its re consideration. In the garb of review, the petitioner cannot seek re-hearing of the matter and re-consideration of the issues decided by the Court.”

The Supreme Court had on 2 February cancelled all 122 mobile network licences accompanying the sale of 2G spectrum granted by former telecom minister, Raja, in 2008. The licences had been allocated on a first-come-first-served basis by Raja as opposed to having an auction for it.