SC adjourns hearing of petition on Spectrum scam

The Supreme Court today adjourned its scheduled hearing of a petition file by an NGO alleging financial irregularities to the tune of Rs 70,000-crore by Union Telecom Minister Raja while allocating 2 G Spectrum in 2008.

The Supreme Court today adjourned its scheduled hearing of a petition file by an NGO alleging financial irregularities to the tune of Rs 70,000-crore by Union Telecom Minister Raja while allocating 2 G Spectrum in 2008.

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A Bench comprising Justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly accepted the request of Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium to adjourn the matter, which was scheduled to be heard on October 22.

This was also not opposed by advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the NGO. Earlier, on October 8, during the last hearing, the apex court had asked the Department of Telecom to respond to the CAG report pointing out largescale irregularities and favoritism allegedly by telecom minister A Raja.

The Apex Court had asked government to go through the the draft report alleging that the Ministry of Telecom ignored the advice of the Law Ministry and the Prime Minister and alloted the license by favouring "ineligible" companies at the lower rate on first-cum-first basis by arbitrarily deciding the cut off date.

The Bench had posted the matter for October 22 without perusing the status reports filed by CBI and Enforcement Directorate into the investigations in the case. It returned the reports filed in sealed covers to both the agencies stating that it will consider them during the next date of hearing.