In a breather to the Union IT and Communications Minister Mr Kapil Sibal, the Supreme Court on Monday declined to pass any order on an NGO’s plea for a CBI probe into the allegations that he “abused” his official position to benefit Reliance Infocomm.
The NGO, the Centre for Public Interest Litigation, was represented by advocate Mr Prashant Bhushan.
The apex court observed that all alleged irregularities in the telecom sector, such as this one, cannot be linked to the 2G spectrum licence allocation scam that is being investigated by the CBI and Enforcement Directorate.
When Mr Bhushan pressed for a CBI probe into the matter, the apex court -- which is monitoring the probe by the CBI and ED -- said "it is open to CBI for investigation."
The court said "the Minister's decision may be right or may be wrong," but added that "We don't want to say anything except any person aggrieved (by the actions of the Minister) can seek remedy in accordance with the law at an appropriate forum."
An affidavit filed by the CPIL before the apex court had alleged that Mr Sibal favoured Reliance Infocomm by closing the issue of “violation” of 2G spectrum licence (UASL) conditions with only a penalty of Rs 5 crore.
Alleging that Reliance Infocomm had discontinued the service at 13 telecom circles across India unilaterally, without notice to either the Government or to the subscribers, the CPIL said the Department of Telecom had issued notice for a penalty of Rs 50 crore on the company.
Since violation of UASL conditions carried a penalty of Rs 50 crore per circle, if the same was imposed for all 13 circles in which Reliance Infocomm had agreements on Universal Service Obligation Fund and UASL, the fine would rise to Rs 650 crore, the CPIL alleged.
It said Mr Sibal over-ruled all the officers of the DoT and in effect reduced the penalty to only Rs 5 crore based on a letter from the company that it had restored services. The Minister did not even verify the firm’s claims, the CPIL said, adding that he treated the act as a mere ‘interruption’ of service.
However, Mr Sibal had denied these allegations and said that the affidavit was being used to settle personal scores. The Minister said it has no connection with the 2G case.
The matter came into prominence for another reason -- Mr Rohinton Nariman representing the Government on Monday before the apex court in place of the Solicitor General Mr Gopal Subramanium. The move to chose Mr Nariman reportedly prompted Mr Subramanium to offer his resignation. However, his resignation has not yet been accpeted by the Government so far.