SC extends 2G auction deadline

The Supreme Court gave more than what the Centre had pleaded for by extending the deadline for auction of cancelled 2G spectrum licences from August 31 to January 11 but pinned it with two discomfiting caveats — failure to adhere to the new schedule would invite contempt action against officials and possible imposition of heavy costs on the Union government.
The Centre had pleaded for extension of deadline to November 12 with an additional 40 days to complete the process for auction of 122 spectrum licences in 22 telecom circles, which were cancelled by the court in its February 2 judgment, while directing their auction by June 2.
Senior advocate P P Rao sought to stretch the time limit by narrating the lengthy process involved in auction and requested the bench of Justice G S Singhvi and Justice K S Radhakrishnan to grant such extension that the government would not need to come back with a request for further relaxation.
Having extended the deadline twice — first from June 2 to August 31 and now from August 31 to January 11 — the bench did not give all the relief at one go. Wanting to wait and test the Centre’s willingness to abide by its commitment, it posted the matter for further hearing on January 13 without specifying the time it was willing to grant for allocation of spectrum to successful bidders at the auction.
The bench warned the government that “if the Centre failed to complete the auction process by January 11, 2013, the court will be constrained to initiate suo motu proceedings against concerned officials under the Contempt of Court Act”. It also allowed existing service providers to continue operations till January 13.
While warning the Union government that it might get saddled with “exemplary cost” if it violated the fresh deadline, the bench barred all other courts in India from entertaining any petition, application or suit relating to auction of 2G spectrum being conducted on the directions of the Supreme Court.
Justice Singhvi and Justice Radhakrishnan agreed to entertain the plea for extension of auction deadline only after telecom secretary R Chandrasekhar filed an affidavit through advocate Apeksha Sharan undertaking that “the central government is firmly and irrevocably committed to implement the aforesaid judgment”.
To the discomfort of the government, Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy said the seven-month delay in implementation of the 2G judgment due to Centre’s repeated attempts to extend the deadline benefited private operators, who as per the original judgment were to surrender their licences by June end.
The bench said it would consider at an appropriate time Swamy’s application and contention of advocate Prashant Bhushan that the government’s attempt was to overrule the 2G judgment by first withdrawing the review petition and then sending a presidential reference seeking clarifications.