The Prime Minister has asked the Group on Telecom to resolve all issues arising out of the Supreme Court ruling on 2G licence cancellation within two weeks.
The Group, headed by the Finance Minister, had met last week but could not take a final view due to the absence of key officials, including the Attorney-General, Mr Goolam Vahanvati.
According to official sources, the Government may seek a Presidential reference to get clarity on whether the Supreme Court's ruling on the ‘first-come, first-served' policy would be applicable to allocation of other natural resources.
While cancelling the 122 telecom licences, the apex court had said that the ‘first-come, first-served' policy was flawed but did not elaborate whether this was applicable only to spectrum allocation or other areas as well.
3G services
The sources said post the 2G ruling, the Department of Telecom is grappling with many other issues. The most important is the time needed to auction 2G spectrum after cancelling the licences.
While the Supreme Court had set a four-month deadline, an internal assessment done by the DoT suggests the entire process to auction spectrum could take at least nine months. The other key issue that has emerged from the 2G verdict is the impact on 3G services offered by some of the affected operators.
Idea Cellular, for example, will lose nine licences as a result of the apex court ruling but the operator also offers 3G services under the same licences. The Government is, therefore, considering approaching the apex court to seek clarity on whether the 3G spectrum should also be taken away after the licences are scrapped.
The third major issue that has the policy-makers in a bind is the future of licences awarded between 2002 and 2008.
Although the apex court has termed the FCFS policy as flawed for licences given after 2008, there is a view that licences issued prior to that on the same principle may also not be valid.
Sources said that the Government may also seek clarification from the Supreme Court in this regard.
Telecom companies, including Idea Cellular, have already filed a review petition with the apex court.
Meanwhile an expert committee has been set up to go into these aspects. The committee's report will be taken up by the Group now formed by the Prime Minister.
tkt@thehindu.co.in