NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday issued notices to Union Minister for Communications A Raja, besides the central government, the CBI, Directorate of Enforcement and the Directorate General of Income Tax on a Special Leave Petition filed by three parties.
The petition — filed by the Centre for Public Interest Litigation, the Telecom Watchdog and senior journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta — alleged that the national exchequer had incurred an estimated Rs 70,000 crore loss in the allocation of 2G spectrum, and sought a court-monitored probe into the scam.
The Delhi High Court had, on May 25 this year, dismissed the Public Interest Litigation petition filed earlier by the same petitioners.
A Bench comprising Justice G S Singhvi and Justice A K Ganguly directed the respondents to reply to the notices within 10 days. Counsel for the petitioners, Prashant Bhushan, told the Bench that despite having documents evidencing an alleged nexus between Minister Raja and others, the CBI did not go ahead with the probe in the matter.
The DoT, under the ministership of Raja, had given away 2G spectrum to 122 operators at a “throwaway” price of Rs 1,658 crore for pan-India licences on a first-come-first-served basis in January 2008 instead conducting an auction.
Stating that the 2G spectrum scam was “easily the biggest the country has seen”, with a sitting Union Minister being found directly involved, the petitioners alleged that despite tapes of Raja’s conversations with corporate middlemen being available with the CBI, the agency’s entire investigation had been scuttled to protect vested political interests, corporate and other middlemen involved. The petitioners therefore sought that the CBI investigation be monitored by the court.
The investigation directly implicates Raja — who in May 2007 took over as Union Communications Minister — and also other senior officials of Department of Telecom, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India and corporate entities and middlemen who are the beneficiaries of the scam, the petitioners stated.