The JPC held its 39th meeting and questioned former TRAI chairman Nripendra Mishra. The panel may have the draft of the report ready by September but would not call either Chidambaram or Raja, JPC chief PC Chacko said when asked specifically about the possibility of the two appearing before the committee.

This may further fuel anger among opposition parties, most of which are targeting Chidambaram for his alleged role in the scam.

Chacko said if Chidambaram or Raja are summoned, then ministers who served in the NDA, when it was in power, will also have to testify. A final decision on the summons will be taken next week at the JPC's meeting. The committee combines nearly 30 members of different parties from the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha.

Chacko clarified that the list of the people who should ideally be called to testify before the JPC is long, but not everybody would be called as the files related to them with all their notings were with the committee and had been thoroughly scrutinised.

These included those of Chidambaram, Raja and even of the ministers in the NDA regime.

The BJP has been alleging that as Finance Minister at the time when the licences were doled out by Raja on a first-come-first-serve basis, Chidambaram was aware of blatant manipulation of guidelines by then Telecom Minister (Raja) and he failed to interfere.

Chidambaram has denied the charges and even the CBI which has been investigating the matter has said so far that there is nothing to suggest that he should be investigated.

The UPA is of the view that when it came to power in 2004, it inherited the telecom policies of the BJP-led NDA.

So if Chidambaram is called to testify to the committee, then the Congress members would also insist that the NDA ministers for telecom and finance should also be grilled.

Supreme Court in February last cancelled all the 122 licences which were given by Raja and asked the government to carry out a fresh auction of the spectrum which thus be vacated.

Raja who had been arrested by the CBI was recently released on bail.

The JPC has so far met with only senior bureaucrats who were involved with telecom policy.

In his statement before the JPC former TRAI chairman Mishra said that Department of Telecom (DoT), while giving out the licences in 2008 did not seek any recommendation from TRAI nor did it give any suo-moto recommendation on the doling out of the licences.

Mishra further stated that TRAI had in August 2007 recommended that all spectrum expect in 800, 900 and 1800 MHz band, which is essentially the 2G spectrum band, should by auctioned and as the government in 2008 followed the same recommendation.