HC issues notice to government on spectrum allocation

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has asked the central government to file a response by 10 December to a public interest petition that challenges its policy of spectrum allocation on a first come, first served basis.

A public interest litigation (PIL) filed in the court last week has challenged the central government's policy of allocating 2G spectrum that has resulted in substantial losses to the union government on account of lost revenues. The high court has now asked the government to file its response in three weeks, and has scheduled the next hearing for 10 December. 

Telecom minister A Raja has been criticised for following the policy of first come first served in the allocation of the 4.4MHz spectrum, a scarce natural resource, at the 2001 price of Rs1,651 crore, in lew of calling for auctions. This, it is said, has compromised the market value of the spectrum, and the government is reported to have lost around Rs50,000 crore in revenues. 

Petitioner Arvind Gupta challenged this policy of government, reportedly alleging that the telecom ministry played into the hands of some real estate majors and infrastructure companies.  The petitioner referred to the court's judgement of 1993 where it had termed the first come first served policy as unfair and unjustified in a case that involved Doordarshan. He also said that the department of communication opposed competitive bidding via auctions to favour some private reality majors, as is evident from the fact that a reality company was given a license at very low price without any consideration to prevailing market prices.
 
In its defence, counsel for the government asked the court not to entertain the PIL, as an identical issue was pending in another quasi-judicial forum, the telecom appellate tribunal TDSAT. Reports suggested that senior advocates appearing for spectrum licence holders were also at hand to assist government counsel. However, the Bench decided not to allow the private parties to delay completion of the hearing by asserting that the government should first "explain to the court as to what this 'first come first serve policy' means". 

The PIL is seeking a quashing of the first come first serve allotments procedure. 

Doordarshan had in 1993 resorted to an identical "first come first serve" policy for allotting time slots to private producers on satellite channels. It was in this case that the High Court had held that  the basis of first come first serve for allotment of time slots on satellite channels is arbitrary, unreasonable, unjust and unfair.