Sunday 17 February 2013
Telcos who failed to renew 2G license must stop operations immediately: Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of India has ordered
that the companies whose permits were cancelled and have failed to
acquire 2G license in the recently concluded 2G spectrum auction must
stop their operations immediately. Also,
the companies whose license were cancelled and didn’t participate in the
fresh auction have also been asked to halt their operations.
The judgment was given-out by a two
member bench consisting of justice K S Radhakrishnan and justice G S
Singhvi who ruled that the telecom operators who had been continuing
their operations after their licenses got cancelled last year in
February, will have to pay the reserved price for licenses for the
November 2012 auctions.
The Supreme Court of India, in it’s judgement, said,
The telecom companies which have been unsuccessful in
the bidding and those after the cancellation of the licences did not
participate in the fresh auction are directed to cease from continuing
from operation forthwith and the successful bidders will immediately
start in their respective circles.
The Supreme Court also ruled that
that verdict given out by the court on February 2 last year wasn’t
applicable to the companies operating in the 900MHz spectrum and it was
not a subject matter before it. The Supreme Court of India had cancelled
122 licenses last year after it found out that the licenses were
distributed in a “totally arbitrary and unconstitutional” manner.
The latest decision by the Supreme Court
implies an end of the operations for Sistema Shyam TeleServices Ltd in
India, who didn’t participate in the 2G spectrum auctions held
in November last year.
