The Supreme Court on Tuesday declined a motion to cancel the 2G spectrum licences allotted to private operators in 2008 on the basis of the CAG report alone. A bench of Justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly refused a submission by advocate Prashant Bhushan,appearing for the petitioner,Centre for Public Interest Litigation,for the outright cancellation of the licences as the operators,as per the CAG report,had not fulfilled their roll-out obligations or honoured the terms of allocation. The report states that the allocation of spectrum in 2008 at 2001 prices had caused an assumed loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore to the exchequer. They cannot be cancelled on the basis of the CAG report alone. They have a right to be heard. But the CAG report will be a ground that we will be consider, the court said. The court said whatever steps the central government takes for regularising the spectrum licences of firms which failed to fulfill their obligations would be subject to the final outcome of the petition which has challenged the allocation in 2008 at 2001 prices.
