PIL in SC seeks CBI probe into Sibal's 'favour' to RCom

The Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) on Thursday filed an application in the Supreme Court seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe against Communications Minister Kapil Sibal for allegedly favouring Reliance Communications (RCom) over a penalty payable for violations of Unified Access Service Licence (UASL) rules, PTI reports.

Firstpost has carried exclusive reports on these issues last week and earlier this week.

In another application, the NGO, which is associated with Prashant Bhushan of Jan Lokpal Bill fame, has also accused Attorney General Goolam E Vahanvati of bypassing rules to give an opinion to former Communications Minister A Raja, now in Tihar jail. Vahanvati apparently gave Raja the green signal to give spectrum to Swan Telecom.

The NGO’s application says that Sibal reduced the penalty on RCom to Rs 5 crore from Rs 650 crore for violations of the UASL agreement. RCom had allegedly switched off telecom towers in remote areas where it had agreed to provide service under the Universal Service Obligation Fund Agreement.

“Sibal abused his position asminister to over-rule the unanimous view taken by senior DoT (Department of Telecommunications) officials, including the Telecom Secretary, to benefit a private operator by closing the issue with only a penalty of Rs 5 crore. This abuse of authority by him to benefit the Anil Ambani-controlled Reliance needs a thorough investigation by the CBI,” the application said.

The NGO annexed documents to buttress the allegation that DoT officials were unanimous that the Reliance group should be penalised at Rs 50 crore per circle for “violation of the terms and conditions of the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) Agreement and the UASL agreement by voluntary, unilateral and unauthorised switching-off/closure of services to subscribers from USOF sites without any notice.”

The matter is likely to come up for hearing on 11 July. The NGO claimed that instead of imposing Rs 650 crore for violation of agreement conditions in 13 circles, Sibal reduced the amount.

“DoT had issued notice for a penalty of Rs 50 crore . If the same was imposed for all 13 circles in which Reliance had USOF agreements, the fine would rise to Rs 650 crore. A detailed explanation was later also prepared by the Director, USOF branch, explaining why the penalty needs to be imposed,” the application said.

Regarding Vahanvati, it alleged that he disregarded the Law Ministry in giving an opinion to Raja on 2G spectrum when he was Solicitor General in the UPA-I government. CPIL said Vahanvati had rendered advice to Raja disregarding the basic rule that senior law officers should give their opinions only through the proper channel, the law ministry.

“Under the terms of service of a law officer (AG/SG), no ministry can directly seek the advice/opinion of a law officer without routing it through the law ministry, and no law officer can give any opinion/advice to any department without it being routed through the law ministry.

“But Vahanvati, disregarded these basic rules, and continued to give opinions to DoT under Raja which were then used by him to justify his decisions and actions,” it said.

The fact that Attorney General disregarded the rule has also been stated by the Public Accounts Committee which, in its report, expressed “shock” that Vahanvati travelled beyond his mandate when the law ministry was of the view that the matter (sale of spectrum) had to be referred to the empowered group of ministers (eGoM). The NGO further said that the Attorney General had wrongly given the green signal for the grant of licences to Swan Telecom, which allegedly had links to RCom.

“When questions were repeatedly being raised about Swan Telecom, including by DoT itself, Vahanvati again went out of his way to give a clean chit to Swan,” the application said, adding that the involvement of Vahanvati in the 2G spectrum scam also needed thorough investigation.

(PTI )