Following Centre’s move to modify the 2012 verdict in the 2G spectrum case, Swamy also moves SC
BJP leader Subramanian Swamy on Tuesday approached the Supreme Court seeking to be heard in the Central government’s move to modify the 2012 landmark 2G Scam Judgment for avoiding auction in trillions of money-spinning Satellite Spectrum. The landmark judgment and later Presidential Reference on auction of natural resources including Spectrum was based on the legal battle led by Subramanian Swamy and noted lawyer Prashant Bhushan. It is learned that Attorney General R Venkataramani agreed to send copies and notices to Swamy in this regard.
Legally, the government has to give a copy/ notice to main petitioners Subramanian Swamy and Prashant Bhushan in a petition seeking modification of a Judgment and the Court has to hear their opinion. But, somehow mysteriously, no intimation was given by the government in such a crucial decision. Why so?.
Many biggies like Bharti Airtel, Elon Musk’s Starlink, and Amazon, Tata are eyeing the allotment of Trillions of Dollars spinning Satellite Spectrum allotments and lobbying hard to avoid auction and wanting Administrative Pricing. Administrative Pricing is nothing but ending up in CORRUPTION. Mukesh Ambani’s Jio and Aditya Birla-controlled Vodafone-Idea are also looking for a Satellite Spectrum and objecting to Administrative Pricing. The government’s newly piloted Telecom Bill 2023 is intended for Administrative Pricing, which is against the Supreme Court’s landmark judgment by Justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly in 2012. The judgment and later Presidential Reference clearly insisted on the auction of all natural resources.
The Central government on Monday moved the Supreme Court seeking modification of its 2012 2G spectrum verdict requiring the government to adopt the auction route for transferring or alienating the country’s natural resources. Attorney General R Venkataramani mentioned the Centre’s plea seeking modification of the 2012 verdict before a Bench led by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud for urgent listing as the government wanted to grant 2G spectrum licences in some cases.
The Bench asked the Attorney General to send an email – a procedural requirement for urgent listing of cases. “We will see, you please move an e-mail,” the CJI told Venkataramani.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, who represented the Centre for Public Interest Litigation — one of the petitioners in the 2G Spectrum Scam case, opposed the Centre’s application, saying the issue had been well-settled by the top court in its 2012 verdict that auction was the only mode for granting licenses for natural resources such as spectrum.
When it comes to alienation of scarce natural resources like spectrum etc, it is the burden of the State to ensure that a non-discriminatory method is adopted for distribution and alienation, which would necessarily result in protection of national/ public interest,” the Supreme Court had ruled.
“In other words, while transferring or alienating the natural resources, the State is duty bound to adopt the method of auction by giving wide publicity so that all eligible persons can participate in the process,” it had said.
Apart from Elon Musk’s Starlink, Amazon’s Kuiper, Tata, Bharti Airtel-backed OneWeb, and Larsen & Toubro are against the auction while Reliance Jio and Vodafone-Idea support the auction of Satellite Spectrum.
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