The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected review petitions filed by 2G firms whose licences it had earlier cancelled.
All eyes would now be on April 13, when the apex court is due to hear the Government's petition filed to review the order on allocation of natural resources through the first-come-first-served (FCFS) route. This hearing will take place in open court, as against Judges chambers where a majority of review petitions tend to be dismissed.
Today's decision comes as a big blow to all the 2G firms whose licences were quashed by the court in February. These companies, which were hoping for some reprieve, would now have to either buy back spectrum through auction or exit completely. Some such as Telenor and Sistema have also invoked bilateral investment treaties to protect their investments.
Seven operators including Videocon, STel, Idea Cellular, Tata Teleservices, Unitech Wireless, Sistema Shyam and Etisalat DB had filed separate petitions.
Dismissing the operators' pleas a bench comprising Mr Justice G.S. Singhvi and Mr Justice K.S. Radhakrishnan said its earlier judgment does not suffer from any error warranting its re-consideration. In February, the court had delivered a land mark ruling cancelling 122 licences on grounds of illegality.
The court had also ruled that the FCFS policy was flawed.
In its review petition the Government had not questioned the cancellation of licences but contended that it was wrong on Supreme Court's part to ‘engage' in policy making. It said that policy lies with the executive, even according to earlier court rulings.
In addition, the petition said that the judgment erred in holding that a public auction is the only fair and transparent method by which the State can distribute natural resources. The judgment erred in finding that the FCFS policy involves ‘an element of pure chance or accident', without considering that there is a risk that any policy, including sale by public auction, may be wrongfully implemented, the petition claimed.
The Government had separately filed a clarificatory petition seeking more time to conduct fresh 2G spectrum auctions. The court had directed in February that the auction process should be completed within four months but the Government wanted 400 days.
This petition has so far not been listed by the court for consideration.