Chidambaram advocated for auction of 2G spectrum: SC

Finance Minister P Chidambaram had not tried to hide illegality in the award of licences by A Raja as he had himself advocated auctioning of 2G spectrum, the Supreme Court noted today.

"The allegation that the attempt of Chidambaram was to hide the illegalities in the award of licences is unfounded. On the other hand, Chidambaram was advocating the fact that the most important method of allocating the spectrum would be through auction," a bench of justices G S Singhvi and K S Radhakrish said.

While dismissing plea of CBI inquiry against the Congress leader, the bench said Chidambaram had himself sent a note to the Prime Minister in this regard.

The Court passed the order after perusing the notes sent by Chidambaram to the PM.
"Chidambaram, following the views expressed by the Ministry of Finance on January 9, 2008, also sent a note to the Prime Minister on January 15, 2008 on spectrum charges.

"Noticeably, this letter was sent at a time when Finance Secretary’s view was rejected by A Raja and officers of the DoT. Raja's views were not overturned even by the Prime Minister’s Office," the bench said.

Chidambaram had said in his note that Spectrum is a scarce resource and the most transparent method of allocating spectrum would be through auction.