2 ಜಿ ಹಗರಣ: 122 ಪರವಾನಿಗೆ ರದ್ದು ಸುಪ್ರೀಂ ಆದೇಶ

Government will study SC order, implications: Pranab

New Delhi, Feb 2 (IANS) The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government reacted cautiously to the Supreme Court verdict Thursday canceling 122 telecom licences issued during jailed former communications minister A Raja~s tenure and said it will formulate a comprehensive response after studying the order and its implications.

"The government will examine the judgment and its implications," Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who is government~s chief trouble shooter, told reporters.

Rubbishing the Bharatiya Janata Party~s renewed demand that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh sack Home Minister P Chidambaram, who was finance minister when 2G spectrum was allocated, Congress spokesperson Renuka Chaudhary told NDTV news channel: "We will come out with a comprehensive response after studying the order."

Defending Chidambaram, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Rajeev Shukla said: "The Opposition will always be after one minister or the other."

"Day before yesterday, there was a judgement and the opposition reacted even without reading it," he said. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court had slammed the Prime Minister~s Office but gave a clean chit to Manmohan Singh over the delay in granting sanction to Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy for prosecuting Raja.

Shukla said: "Kapil Sibal is telecom minister...he will go into the details of the judgment... and will do whatever is suitable."

Stating that the "opposition~s attempt to corner the government does not matter as the case is already in court and the court will decide", Shukla added: "As far as the opposition is concerned, they comment on everything without understanding (the issue)."

In cancelling the 122 licences, the apex court gave the telecom regulator four months to look into the matter and make recommendations for an auction.

--Indo-Asian News Service

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02021405

SC-TELECOM

SC scraps 122 2G spectrum licences granted under Raja~s tenure

New Delhi, Feb 2 (PTI) In a major development having implications for the corporate sector, the Supreme Court today cancelled the 122 2G spectrum licences granted by former telecom minister A Raja on the ground that they were issued in a "totally arbitrary and unconstitutional" manner.

Imposing a fine of Rs five crore each on three telecom companies, which offloaded their shares after getting the licenses, the court directed regulator Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to make fresh recommendations on allocation of 2G licences.

Asking the government to take steps on the recommendations of TRAI within a month, a bench comprising justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly said the allocation of spectrum will be done through the policy of auction within four months.

The order came on petitions filed by NGO CPIL and Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy alleging scam in the allocation of spectrum licences by Raja in January, 2008 during the tenure of UPA-I government, on which the CAG had assumed the presumptive loss of upto Rs 1.76 lakhs crore.

The 122 licences were given by Raja for over Rs 9,000 crore, while 3G auctions for a smaller number of licences had fetched the government a sum of Rs 69,000 crores.

The companies that are set to lose on account of the cancellation of the licences are Uninor (joint venture between Unitech and Telenor of Norway), Loop Telecom, Sistema Shyam (joint venture between Shyam and Sistema of Russia), Etisalat DB (joint venture between Swan and Etisalat of UAE), S Tel, Videocon, Tatas and Idea. (MORE) PTI RKS AAC RB UPT SKB VSC DV 02021245

ನವದೆಹಲಿ (ಪಿಟಿಐ): 2 ಜಿ ಸ್ಪೆಕ್ಟ್ರಂ ಹಗರಣದಲ್ಲಿ ಕೇಂದ್ರದ ಗೃಹಖಾತೆ ಸಚಿವ ಪಿ ಚಿದಂಬರಂ ಅವರು ಪಾತ್ರದ ಕುರಿತು ತನಿಖೆ ನಡೆಸಬೇಕೆ? ಬೇಡವೆ? ಎಂಬುದನ್ನು ಈ ಹಗರಣದ ವಿಚಾರಣೆ ನಡೆಸುತ್ತಿರುವ ನ್ಯಾಯಾಲಯ ತೀರ್ಮಾನಿಸಲಿ ಎಂದಿರುವ ಸುಪ್ರೀಂ ಕೋರ್ಟ್, ಅದೇ ಸಂದರ್ಭದಲ್ಲಿ ಈ ಹಗರಣದಲ್ಲಿನ ಚಿದಂಬರಂ ಅವರ ಪಾತ್ರದ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಸಿಬಿಐಗೆ ತನಿಖೆ ನಡೆಸುವಂತೆ ನಿರ್ದೇಶನ ನೀಡಬೇಕೆಂಬ ಮನವಿಯನ್ನು ಗುರುವಾರ ತಳ್ಳಿಹಾಕಿದೆ.

2 ಜಿ ಹಗರಣದಲ್ಲಿ ಚಿದಂಬರಂ ಅವರ ಪಾತ್ರದ ಕುರಿತು ತನಿಖೆ ನಡೆಸುವಂತೆ ನಿರ್ದೇಶಿಸಬೇಕೆಂಬ ಜನತಾ ಪಕ್ಷದ ಮುಖ್ಯಸ್ಥ ಸುಬ್ರಮಣಿಯನ್ ಸ್ವಾಮಿ ಅವರ ಅರ್ಜಿ ವಿಚಾರಣೆ ನಡೆಸುತ್ತಿರುವ ನ್ಯಾಯಮೂರ್ತಿಗಳಾದ ಜಿ.ಎಸ್. ಸಿಂಘ್ವಿ ಮತ್ತು ಎ.ಕೆ.ಗಂಗೂಲಿ ಅವರಿದ್ದ ಸುಪ್ರೀಂ ಕೋರ್ಟ್, ತನ್ನ ಈ ಆದೇಶ ವಿಚಾರಣೆ ನಡೆಯುತ್ತಿರುವ ನ್ಯಾಯಾಲಯದ ಕಲಾಪದ ಮೇಲೆ ಯಾವುದೇ ಪರಿಣಾಮ ಬೀರದು ಎಂದು ಹೇಳಿದೆ.

ಈ ಸಂಬಂಧ ವಿಚಾರಣೆ ನಡೆಸುತ್ತಿರುವ ನ್ಯಾಯಾಲಯ, ಎರಡು ವಾರಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಈ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ನಿರ್ಧಾರ ಕೈಗೊಳ್ಳಲಿ ಎಂದೂ ಸುಪ್ರೀಂ ಕೋರ್ಟ್ ತಿಳಿಸಿದೆ.

ಗೃಹ ಸಚಿವ ಚಿದಂಬರಂ ಅವರ ವಿರುದ್ಧ ಕಾನೂನು ಕ್ರಮ ಜರುಗಿಸಬೇಕೆಂಬ ಸುಬ್ರಮಣಿಯನ್ ಸ್ವಾಮಿ ಅವರ ಅರ್ಜಿಯ ವಿಚಾರಣೆಯನ್ನು ಸಿಬಿಐ ವಿಶೇಷ ನ್ಯಾಯಾಲಯದ ನ್ಯಾಯಾಧೀಶರಾದ ಓ.ಪಿ.ಸೈನಿ ಅವರು ನಡೆಸುತ್ತಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ಅವರು ಫೆ.4 ರಂದು ಈ ಸಂಬಂಧ ಆದೇಶ ನೀಡಲಿದ್ದಾರೆ.