Irregular telecom licences will be cancelled: SC

Saying that illegality cannot be protected, the Supreme Court on Thursday made it clear that licences of telecom companies would be cancelled if irregularities were detected in the allotment of 2G spectrum during the tenure of A Raja as telecom minister.

Reserving its verdict on the cancellation of 122 licences, a bench of justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly rejected the companies' claim that their contract with the government spectrum allotment cannot be quashed once it has been agreed upon, saying that the principle of estoppel does not protect illegality.

''No estoppel can be applied here. The principle cannot be applied to protect illegality,'' the bench said.

The court concluded its proceedings after hearing extensively from all the companies concerned, the government and the petitioners.

In their joint petition, a number of civil groups, including an NGO namely, NGO Centre for Public Interest Litigation have alleged that the spectrum allocation, made by the DoT during Raja's tenure as telecom minister, was riddled with "multiple illegalities, corruption and favouritism."

The case also has other petitioners including the telecom watchdog, NGO Common Cause, former chief election commissioners J M Lyngdoh, T S Krishnamurthy and N Gopalaswami along with former central vigilance commissioner P Shankar.