New Delhi, April 24
The Supreme Court today extended by 90 days the deadline for auctioning the 122 2G Spectrum licences it had cancelled on February 2. Auctioning will now have to be completed by August 31 instead of June 2.

A Bench of Justices GS Singhvi and KS Radhakrishnan clarified that in view of the extension the cancelled licences would now remain valid till September 7.

The Bench, however, rejected the government’s plea for 400 days’ time to complete the exercise. “In our view, it will be just and proper to partially accept the averments” of the government.

On February 2 this year, the apex court had cancelled the 122 licenses issued in 2008 by the then Telecom Minister A Raja at 2001 prices on first-come, first-served basis, instead of auctioning them to realise prevailing market prices. It had then asked the government to auction the licences within four months.

Today, Attorney General GE Vahanvati pleaded with the Bench that the government was facing practical difficulties in meeting the apex court deadline. He also apprised the Bench of yesterday’s recommendations of the telecom regulator on the reserve price for the auction. Millions of cellphone users would suffer if the existing licenses stood cancelled before the auction process was completed, he said.

However, the Bench was not convinced. How much time did the government take for issue of these licenses in 2008, it counter-questioned.

In a related development, The Bench reserved its order on Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy’s plea for directing the CBI to probe the possible role of Home Minister P Chidambaram in the 2008 scam when he was Finance Minister.

Chidambaram was bound by oath to protect the government’s finances, but caused huge losses to the exchequer by allowing Raja to go ahead with spectrum allocation, Swamy contended.

Chidambaram was also guilty of allowing some of the companies to sell their stakes to other operators whose promoters had links with the underworld and interest in China and Pakistan.