The Supreme Court on Wednesday said the controversial January 10,2008 press release issued by A Raja for allocation of new licences and 2G spectrum fell miserably short of the basic process of law. It said the press release actually gave operators exactly 45 minutes between 2.45 pm,when the press release was issued via PIB,and the deadline of 3.30 pm to prepare their bank drafts and company papers and rush to the Department of Telecom (DoT) offices to get themselves allocated the spectrum licences on the so-called first-come-first serve basis. A Bench led by Justice G S Singhvi told Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium,appearing for the Telecom Ministry,that if the same had been tried with advocates,a commotion would have broken loose in the Bar. At 2.45 pm your press release requested everyone to come at 3.30 pm. How do you call this transparent. You want them to come with company rubber stamps and other things in the next 45 minutes, the court observed.The press release was a facet of transparency, the SG replied.Maybe,but only microscopic transparency. Again is it not very unusual that all 16 companies (who got the 122 licences out of 575 applications) turned up,and no one complained. Can you call this a process consistent with the Rule of Law? the Bench asked.To this the SG acquiesced,saying that it had indeed fallen short of the process.Miserably short, the court stressed.The court also questioned why Raja went ahead with the allocation despite clear warning signals from various ministries,including the Prime Minister himself. The Prime Minister had made his reservations clear which was not treated with respect. There are requirements of collective responsibility. Government is not like a private business house. Its action has to be reasonable and in public interest, the court said. In the context of sequence of events,bypassing the Prime Minister was not at all proper, it said.
