The department of telecommunications affidavit in Supreme Court refutes allegations of revenue loss

The department of telecommunications (DoT) has rubbished allegations of corruption in the allocation of 2G spectrum and said the auction was done in consonance with the prime minister’s concerns.

In an affidavit filed before the Supreme Court on Thursday, DoT’s assistant director Sita Ram Meena countered allegations that the allocations had been made against the advice of prime minister. “This is wholly incorrect,” the affidavit said in response to the court’s notice in an appeal filed by the Centre for the public interest litigation (CPIL).

The PM had sent a letter to the minister of communication and information technology (MoC&IT) on November 2,20o7 concerning the spectrum allocations.  On the same day MoC&IT replied to him clarifying “all the issues”.

Four days later, DoT informed the PMO that it has taken decisions to work out revised subscriber-based spectrum allocation criteria and processing of applications to grant unified access services licenses. The affidavit also said there was no “difference of opinion” with the PM, who had been kept informed of its decisions.

On Thursday, the DoT pleaded that the CPIL’s petition be dismissed as it had sought the court’s indulgence to monitor the CBI probe. The affidavit will be examined along with averments to be made by Raja and CPIL’s lawyer Prashant Bhushan on November 15.

The department also contested allegations that it had disregarded the law ministry’s advice, saying that the ministry didn’t give any advice regarding the policy on granting UAS licenses or the first-come first-serve issue.

According to DoT, the law ministry had suggested that the matter relating to handling a large number of applications be referred to a group of ministers. However, the department felt since it was a procedural issue, there was no need for the GoM’s consideration.