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2G case: Supreme Court allows govt to withdraw review petition

India ran out of warehouse space to hold another bumper crop, a core problem of the nation's food crisis.

Newly-elected French President Francois Hollande (L) with outgoing Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand
Newly-elected French President Francois Hollande (L) with outgoing Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand

The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed the central government to withdraw its review petition on the apex court’s 2G judgement of February 2 this year. The order had held that natural resources should be allotted to private companies only through ‘auction’ and not on the basis of first-come-first-served (FCFS) policy.


The Court, however, questioned the manner in which the withdrawal was sought.


Additonal solicitor general Indira Jaisingh, had written a letter to the Supreme Court Registry for withdrawing the 2G review petition. The letter also said that Registry may place the letter before the Chief Justice of India for constituting a bench


The Bench hearing the 2G scam took objection to these lines in the letter. “What was the occasion to write this letter to Registry to place before the Chief Justice. It is highly inappropriate,” the Bench told Jaisingh. “Please tell us in how many cases you write letters? Orally request is made for withdrawal and we allow it. First this letter is made public then it comes to court.”


Jaisingh requested the court to ignore the letter


Lawyer Prashant Bhushan opposed the withdrawal by the Centre and accused that the government is on a “forum shopping” as it had already filed Presidential reference and therefore the Court should not allow the withdrawal


The SC, however, allowed the Centre to withdraw the review petition


Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy said that until now, the Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) had been saying that Aircel-Maxix deal was done due to coercion but it could not have been possible unless cleared by Foreign Investment Promotion Board and said he has more documents to suggest that permission granted by FIPB.


He sought permission to place these records on record and send it to the CBI for a probe, which the court allowed.


The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Income Tax department and the Enforcement Direcorate submitted their status report to the Supreme Court. The Central Vigilance Commission also submitted its observations on the three reports to the Court.


The apex court will examine the reports on July 17.


On Wednesday, the government had written to the Supreme Court registry seeking to withdraw its review petition on the 2G judgement.


The Centre had sought a clarification whether the 2G judgment on auctioning of spectrum would apply to other natural resources too.


The government had written to various parties linked with the matter, saying that since “only limited notice has been issued, the petitioners do not want to press the review petition and will be praying for withdrawal of the review petition”.


The apex court on April 13 had admitted the Government's plea seeking review of its 2G ruling on a limited aspect that natural resources should be allotted to private companies only through "auction" but had refused to hear the affected telecom firms, whose petitions for reconsideration of the verdict cancelling their licences were dismissed.


A bench of justices G S Singhvi and K S Radhakrishnan had issued notices to the NGO, Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) and Swamy, seeking their responses on the Government's plea seeking review of the February 2 judgement by which the first-come-first-served policy was held as flawed.


In the review petition, the Centre had said it did not want to question the order on the cancellation of licenses.


After filing the review petition, the Government on April 12 had moved the Supreme Court with a Presidential Reference for its opinion on issues arising out of its 2G spectrum judgement including whether auctioning of natural resources across all sectors is mandatory and the verdict be given retrospective effect for radio waves granted since 1994.


(With inputs from PTI)