NEW DELHI: The Union Cabinet on Saturday discussed a proposal for making a Presidential Reference on the Supreme Court order cancelling 122 2G licences and decided to call the Solicitor General for consultations.
The Cabinet will meet again early next week when the Solicitor General will be called to present legalities involved in seeking such a reference, sources privy to the deliberations said.
The government has already filed a review petition seeking clarifications on certain aspects of the February 2 judgement of the apex court.
“We have not challenged the cancellation of 122 licences. Under the law, you cannot seek a reference and through that process challenge the judgement,” a source said.
“A reference is not meant to overturn a judgement of the court because a reference court is not a court of appeal. The Supreme Court is final court. So, reference court is not a court of appeal but if some issues arise out of a judgement which are in the nature of public issues, we can seek a reference,” the source said.
The Department of Telecom feels the judgement has ramifications on several other sectors which also use the Supreme Court condemned first-come-first-serve policy for allocation of natural resources.
“We are not challenging the judgement but we are seeking reference on those issues,” the source said, adding that Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal explained applications of the judgement to the Cabinet.
The Cabinet, however, deferred a decision on the Presidential reference and would take a final call only after hearing views of the Solicitor General, sources added.As per law, the Supreme Court is not bound to answer all Presidential references.
The government has filed an interim application with the Supreme Court in which it has expressed its inability to conduct auction of 2G auction in four-month period as directed by it.
On March 2, the government filed a review petition in the apex court seeking a review of a part of the judgement.
Earlier, Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal in a media interaction had cited an example of the Mines and Minerals Regulation and Development Act that governs mineral resources in the country.”Suppose, we want to mine a particular mineral …. you don’t know what are the quantities of that mineral embedded in earth and you don’t know where it is embedded, so naturally you will request entrepreneurs to come and prospect,” Sibal had said. (PTI)