Government could not have cancelled LoIs: CBI tells SC

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has told the Supreme Court that the government could not cancel the letters of intent (LoIs) issued to telecom operators on allocation of 2G spectrum, as the aggrieved companies would have dragged it to court.

Responding to the apex court's query as to why the government did not cancel the LoIs even after then telecommunications minister A. Raja went ahead with the 'first-cum-first-served' policy, ignoring prime minister Manmohan Singh's suggestions for auctioning of the spectrum, the CBI said this would have resulted in litigation.

The probe agency also cited previous judgements of the Supreme Court that once LoIs were issued, they could not be cancelled.

The court on Friday deferred the hearing on the bail plea by five executives of top telecom companies to 31 October. They include Sanjay Chandra, managing director, Unitech Wireless; Vinod Goenka, director, Swan Telecom; and Gautam Doshi, Hari Nair and Surrendra Pipara of Reliance ADAG.

The Supreme Court had earlier observed that the 2G scam could have been avoided had the government cancelled the LoIs. The Centre of Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) had earlier contended that no legal rights had been vested on the companies by issuing LoIs in January 2008. The government could still have gone ahead with the auction of the spectrum, it had said.

The CBI, however, rebutted the claims and said had the government cancelled the LoIs, it would have attracted court cases from the aggrieved parties.