'Scam could be avoided if Raja heeded to PM's letter'

The Supreme Court said on Thursday that the central government could have avoided "the entire exercise of going in and out of court" if then telecom minister A Raja had heeded Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's advice to auction scarce 2G spectrum instead of adopting the first-come-first-served policy in allocation of airwaves.

The Supreme Court said on Thursday that the central government could have avoided "the entire exercise of going in and out of court" if then telecom minister A Raja had heeded Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's advice to auction scarce 2G spectrum instead of adopting the first-come-first-served policy in allocation of airwaves.

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The court also said the finance ministry had "throughout objected to the first-come-first-served policy".

"November 2, 2007 was a crucial date. The head of the government (PM) had written that spectrum was a scarce commodity and it should be auctioned. The then honourable minister for telecom (Raja) did not agree," said a bench of justice GS Singhvi and justice HL Dattu.

The bench made these observations during the hearing of the bail plea of Sanjay Chandra, managing director of Unitech Wireless (Tamil Nadu), who has been named in the 2G scam by the CBI.