The Supreme Court decided to cancel the 122 licences because it found that the entire process undertaken by the Department of Telecom as arbitrary, capricious and contrary to public interest.
“The exercise undertaken by the officers of the DoT between September, 2007 and March 2008, under the leadership of the then Minister of C&IT was wholly arbitrary, capricious and contrary to public interest apart from being violative of the doctrine of equality,” the Supreme Court said.
The apex court said that the material produced before it showed that the then Minister of Communication and IT, Mr A Raja, wanted to favour some companies at the cost of the public exchequer.
The apex court also said there is a fundamental flaw in the first-come-first-served policy in as much as it involves an element of pure chance or accident. “Any person who has access to the power corridor at the highest or the lowest level may be able to obtain information from the Government files or the files of the agency/instrumentality of the State that a particular public property or asset is likely to be disposed of or a contract is likely to be awarded or a licence or permission is likely to be given, he would immediately make an application and would become entitled to stand first in the queue at the cost of all others who may have a better claim,” the court said.
The court said that every thing was stage managed to favour those who were able to know in advance the change in the implementation of the first-come-first served policy.