New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday held a key meeting with union ministers–Pranab Mukherjee, Kapil Sibal, Salman Khurshid and P Chidambaram–to discuss the fallout of the Supreme Court order in the 2G spectrum case cancelling 122 licences.
”We had a presentation in which salient features of judgement were discussed. It was an exercise in informing the PM and the group of what happened in court,’ Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal said.
Earlier in the month, the Supreme Court had ordered to cancel the 122 2G licenses allocated during the regime of former Telecom Minister A Raja.
The apex court had observed that the first-come-first-served policy adopted in allocation of 2G spectrum was flawed. The court favoured auctioning for allocation of spectrum.
According to sources, the government has asked for final opinion of the Attorney General Goolam Essaji Vahanvati on whether to file a review petition against the order.
The government is expected to take a final call after it gets the Attorney General’s opinion.
The cabinet ministers also had a discussion on whether to move a leave petition on the apex court’s order on mandatory prosecution within four months.
The meeting also took up the discussion on what could be a new policy for spectrum sale and the need to frame new laws, sources said.
Norway and Russia had urged the government’s intervention to safeguard the investments made by their state-run firms–Telenor and Sistema.
While Norway has already initiated action through diplomatic channels, Russian Communications Minister Igor Shchyogolev is expected to visit India shortly to take up the issue. (UNI)
