With a Delhi court clearing Union home minister P. Chidambaram of allegedly playing a role in the multicrore 2G scam, Prime Mini-ster Manmohan Singh held a high-level meeting at his residence on Saturday to discuss the Supreme Court verdict cancelling 122 licences for 2G spectrum.

Sources disclosed that the government is not likely to go for a review of the top court verdict on cancellation of 2G spectrum licences. The government would instead prefer that the private telecom companies and corporate houses hit by the verdict to file review petitions.
The meeting was attended by top ministers, including finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, communications and IT minister Kapil Sibal and law minister Salman Khurshid. Attorn-ey-General G.E. Vahanvati and telecom secretary R. Chandrashekhar were also present. The Prime Min-ister has reportedly sought Mr Vahanvati’s opinion on the Supreme Court verdict. “The meeting was to inform senior ministers of the implications and ramifications of the judgment. This group was not meant to take any decision,” Mr Sibal said. The meeting also centred around re-framing of the rules for the “auction” of the licences, as directed by the apex court, sources said.
It may be recalled that the top court, which had found “fundamental flaws” in the “first-come-first-served (FCFS)” policy for allocation of spectrum, introduced by the then NDA government, directed that the licences be re-issued on open bidding. A deadline of four months has been set by the Supreme Court. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has been given two months to come out with fresh guidelines.
There are indications that the new rules could possibly scrap the FCFS policy for the allocation of spectrum. Changes will also automatically remove evaluation of the 2G spectrum licence entry fee on the basis of 2001 norms. This, incidentally, was the basis of allegations against home minister P. Chidambaram for not “preventing” the communications minister A. Raja from disposing of “scarce” spectrum resources at the throwaway price of `1,650 crore per licence.
Some corporate houses have shown the inclination to file review petitions before the Supreme Court. The move is also likely to suit the government since it would have to be made a party to the case. This would also help the government put across its point of view in the matter, sources said.