The Supreme Court on Friday took strong exception to the government’s decision of not putting on auction all 2G spectrum licences, which the court had cancelled in February. An SC bench said the Centre was “playing” with its order, but it did not stay the auction to be held on November 12. The government has been asked to furnish an explanation on its decision not to auction the entire 2G spectrum on November 19.

The bench also stayed all proceedings in the Delhi HC relating to the 2G scam, which includes pleas of former telecom minister A Raja, DMK MP Kanimozhi and the corporate executives seeking quashing of corruption charges.

The stay order was passed on CBI application stating the petitions before the HC was in violation of the apex court’s April 2011 order directing that no court should entertain any application relating to the case.

Raja wanted faster procedure: Witness
DoT's erstwhile member (technology) K Sridhara on Friday told a Delhi court that Raja wanted a "faster" procedure to give the 2G licences to the applicant firms.

Deposing as a prosecution witness, Sridhara said the first-come-first-served (FCFS) policy was changed during Raja's tenure as the department had received a large number of applications for the Unified Access Service Licences. He said there was “no problem” in continuing with the policy, but Raja wanted a procedure by which licences could be distributed “faster”.  (With PTI inputs)