Complete 2G spectrum auction by Jan 11: SC

The Supreme Court on Monday directed the government to complete fresh auction of cancelled 122 2G spectrum licences by January 11, 2013 and warned that failure to meet the deadline would invite “contempt” action against erring officials with “exemplary” cost.

A bench of justices G S Singhvi and K S Radhakrishnan, which extended the August 31, 2012 deadline for completing the auction process, made it clear that no court in the country will entertain any plea on this issue of 2G spectrum. It said existing licencees of the 2G spectrum, who had to shut down the operation by September 7, are “entitled to operate upto January 18 next year.”

The bench, which expressed its displeasure against the Centre for not mentioning the “outer limit” for completing the auction process, said “unless it will fix the outer limit the auction process will never happen” and “it is also the fact of the matter that they (Centre) have not complied with the February 2 judgement.”

The judges, who were unhappy with the affidavit filed by the Telecom Secretary R Chandrashekhar, for not mentioning the outer limit for the fresh auction of 2G spectrum, said “the process cannot go for indefinite period.”

They said without fixing the outer limit, it was not possible to extend the deadline as the “existing operators will make effort to scuttle the auction and delay the process.”

The bench, which made it clear that no more extention would be granted for the purpose, said that it will peruse the development on January 13 “to know whether the Centre has proceeded with auction or not and to go for the future course on the allocation of 2G spectrum.”