NEW DELHI (AP) — India's top court ordered the government on Thursday to cancel 122 cellphone licenses granted to companies during an irregular sale of spectrum that has been branded one of the largest scandals in India's history.
The verdict will likely disrupt the country's massive cellphone market and is a further embarrassment for the scandal-riddled government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
The 2008 sale of second generation, or 2G, cellphone spectrum at cut-rate prices in a bewildering "first-come, first-served" process netted the government only 124 billion rupees ($2.7 billion). Government auditors said the sale cost the treasury as much as $36 billion in potential revenue.
Subramanian Swamy, an opposition politician who filed the court complaint, said the court ruled that the 122 licenses granted in that deal be scrapped and that a fresh auction for licenses be held in the next four months.
Among the companies that will lose their licenses are Unitech Wireless, which is in collaboration with Norway's Telenor, and Swan Telecom, which is 45 percent owned by Dubai-based Etisalat.
During the 2008 sale, some licenses were awarded to ineligible participants who in turn sold their stakes at much higher prices than they bought them from the government.
India's former telecommunications minister Andimuthu Raja, who was forced to resign because of the scandal, is facing charges of abusing his position. He denies any wrongdoing.
In its judgment Thursday, the court declined to order a high-level probe of one of the country's most powerful politicians, Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram.
Chidambaram was finance minister at the time the licenses were granted and opposition officials say he was partially responsible as well. The court instead directed a trial court to examine the accusations against Chidambaram and make a decision on what to do within two weeks.